Rod Croskery

Rod's rules for ignition coil diagnosis:

1. Don't try to save with cheap Asian coils. This is no place for cost-cutting.

But if you have bought a set of eight for $260, and then had them replaced under warranty, and another one fails, and the CEL won't come on to give you a code, and hitching to a trailer for a hard haul down the highway still won't turn the light on,

2. First replace the one you "just" changed.

3. Check the tightness of the spark plug while you are in there.



For the full rant, go to https://rodcroskery.wordpress.com/20...-just-changed/

TomF

[QUOTE=Rod Croskery;15364197]Rod's rules for ignition coil diagnosis:

1. Don't try to save with cheap Asian coils. This is no place for cost-cutting.

Yes, and make sure you have the latest part number. They have had many, many updates... Also keep in mind that a turbo coil is not an NA coil- suppliers on the internet and ebay are selling them interchangeably.

Cheers,
TomF

Rod Croskery

[QUOTE=TomF;15364481]Thanks for the tip. I did not know there's a difference.

Rod

J'sWorld

It's not that bad. My 1.8t Audi eats them like candy. Keeping the plug newer helps because even though the business end can be nice the resistance values can change inside the core.

Rod Croskery

Last week I posted a rant about cheap Asian coils failing. Then I replaced #2 and all was rosy. Today #7 failed.

I am a patient man, but this is becoming unacceptable. It is time to find a set of high-quality coils for a 2004 Cayenne S. I'm thinking of a VW cross-reference, if there is one, but the V8 is unique to Porsche SUVs, I think.
Any suggestions, preferably from a Canadian source, to reduce the cost of 8 coils?

Thanks,

Rod

slavie

OEM is not that much more expensive - I bought the whole set of 8 from Sonnen for ~$330 shipped, latest revision, no issues so far 3k mi later.. If you paid $260 for a set of Chinese crap, you got royally ripped off.

Rod Croskery

Slavie: Thanks for the response.

I checked the Sonnen website and found only one coil, priced at $162 US. Either they don't distinguish between one and eight, or their price is pretty high. I also wonder about their suggested cross-reference between V8s and V8 Turbos.

https://www.sonnenporscheoemparts.co...er=98060290403

slavie

Ahh, I have a 957 with the 4.8L, didn't realize there was that much of a price difference b/w the two at the dealer. That sucks.

Rod Croskery

My son recommended Sunshine Porsche in Florida where I faced long waits for a salesperson and an incomprehensible website. The local Porsche dealership came down 10% to 67.64 CDN or an all-in price of 611.47 CDN for eight. They'll be in in four days.

Rod Croskery

When I switched out the #7 coil the garage began to smell like the inside of a burned electronic component. When it failed, it had really failed. The car's fuel consumption went from 11.8 to 14.4 litres/100 km, and the car shook constantly.

Not all coils fail in the same manner, I guess. At least #7 popped a code almost immediately.

Ruby now runs like new. Good thing I ordered those OEM coils before I changed the burned one or I'd be back waiting for the next one to fail. I'll drive the Lexus for a week until I can replace them all with OEM.

NelaK

The 10% discount is BS in my opinion. Every dealership offers it without asking. As far as I'm concerned, its not really a discount at all.

I foolishly ordered them from Suncoast Parts - I was tempted by the $352 price... After conversion ($460), shipping ($92), and the surprise duties ($67)... I ended up at $619. In retrospect I should have probably just ordered them from my local dealer.

J'sWorld

It has been my experience that Sonnen has had the best prices on 95% of part #'s for quite some time, for those needing oem parts. They are great to do buisness with. I have ordered probably $7k worth of product from them in the last two years.

19psi

67.64X8=541.12 When converted to CDN, that would be in line with what Pelican charges.
Are your taxes that high to bring it up to 611.47?

I buy most of my parts from Pelican. 8 Beru coil packs cost around $294 US. If you want the same coils but in a box that has PORSCHE written on it, price comes out to $420.
The Chinese crap on Amazon and eBay is so bad, Cayennes often won't start at all after replacing all 8 packs because they are DOA right out of the box.

Rod Croskery

The coil which burned up yesterday had been installed on October 16, 2016. It lasted two years before failure. Four of the original eight in the box actually worked. The warranty replacement set of eight were about the same, with three working properly. Amazon cheapie coils are a bad deal.

Shawn Stanford

Concur.

I bought a set of Asian coils and they all went bad one-by-one within two years. I ended up putting the OEM coils (the ones in when it left the factory) back in as the new ones burned up. At 150k miles, the OEM coils started going south, so I bought a new set from Pelican.

I'm not a snob about Asian parts, but this was not a good experience.