Coil Pack Wiring harness

Greg

Greg

Greg

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
8,973
Ladies and Gents,

After having owned my Mk V GTi for no more than 3 days, I've encountered a major problem with it. Starting the engine, I instantly smelt burning. Fine white smoke was coming from underneath the bonnet so I quickly turned off the ignition and opened it up. I removed the engine facade cover and it was clear that the smoke was emerging from Cylinder number 1. It was the connector that goes into the Coil Pack. It must have shorted and melted the plastic so it became so hot that it started to burn.

This smoke stoped after a minute thankfully and after a day of trying to get my vehicle recovered to a garage (luckily it was on my girlfriends drive) the garage have come back with the following. (I might add that the original purchase garage provided a 6 month AA 5 star guarentee for such problems so it has been taken to my local AA Approved garage called "Nationwide Autocentre" in Bletchley).

They've informed me that all the clip lugs that secure the connector on the wiring loom that goes to the coil packs have been snapped. After phoning the garage that I purchased the vehicle from, he said that this is common becuase they get so hot and the plastic gets brittle. Fair enough.

The third party garage (Nationwide) are now saying that they think its going to cost £1200 to fix. They say that they think the wiring loom or Coil pack wiring harness is connected to the rest of the engine loom and think that you can’t get the part on its own. I’ve only a few quick questions:
1) If they’re going to replace one coil pack under warrenty, is it worth trying to get them to replace all four?
2) What is the price i should be paying for a Coil Pack Wiring loom (I know that the 1.8T engine had a seperate wiring loom) with fitting?
Sorry for the long post but i’m sure you can understand my fustration!

Thanks

Greg
 
Looms are expensive, labour intensive and contain copper. Coils are devices with copper windings inside, also expensive. Potential for a lot of labour depending on how much loom needs replacing.

£1200 is possible, but certainly at the top end of the scale for this job.

No reason to have all 4 coils replaced, but good reason to have the others checked for the same fault.
 
I've got some good coil packs and wiring from a breaker to splice into my loom on my car for this reason a whole replacement loom is a world of pain, make sure its done professionally with heatwrap to prevent moisture etc.
 
Yes, modern coil packs are high current devices on the low tension side.

I have 4x 8A coils, so >32A can be drawn through the ECU/Coils/Injectors relay, which as it turns out, the crimp connectors that I used splice a fresh relay and relay holder into my engine loom, could not cope with. :D
 
Dogbreath said:
That's rather unlikely unless you have a special engine that fires all four cylinders at the same time ;)
Click to expand...

4 coils:

IMG_0682%20%28Medium%29.JPG


Each with one plug under it and another above the counterpart piston. It's a wasted spark system so that it doesn't need 8 coils.





Edit:
Or do you mean that a coil only draws current when it's firing? Because you would still be wrong.

The coils are constantly charging, and stop drawing current for a tiny moment when they fire. At low RPM the coils can all draw close to their maximum current at once, just before a set is about to fire. I'll draw a graph...



Edit 2:

Here, modelling a Punto style set of 2 coils and wasted spark. No distributor.



Both coils will be drawing high levels of current before one coil fires, at low RPM. At the redline, there will usually be no dwell period.

My car is similar, just times everything by 2, cross wire it, and delay the extra coils a fraction.






This is why ignition troubles occur at low RPM, the ignition system is under less stress at high RPM because the coils spend less time drawing high current.
 
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Greg said:
The third party garage (Nationwide) are now saying that they think its going to cost £1200 to fix. They say that they think the wiring loom or Coil pack wiring harness is connected to the rest of the engine loom and think that you can’t get the part on its own. I’ve only a few quick questions:
1) If they’re going to replace one coil pack under warrenty, is it worth trying to get them to replace all four?
2) What is the price i should be paying for a Coil Pack Wiring loom (I know that the 1.8T engine had a seperate wiring loom) with fitting?
Sorry for the long post but i’m sure you can understand my fustration!

Thanks

Greg
Click to expand...

This is simply not true, i knew that anyways but just to confirm:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220454650950
 
Firestar_3x said:
This is simply not true, i knew that anyways but just to confirm:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220454650950
Click to expand...

That loom is for a MK4 Golf, the OP has a MK5. If it is under warranty i would let them replace the whole lot however a good auto electrician should be able to make up a new loom for the coil packs as the connectors can be bought from VW and then splice this loom into current loom.

I have heard of this on a couple of MK5s it is normally the coil pack failing that then melts the connector/loom. I would make sure you get all four coil packs replaced.
 
It will be arranged and split in exactly the same manor, its just a case of finding the part, if i had ETKA at work i'd tell you right now.
 
Thanks guys,

I think they're going to say that the wiring loom isn't covered on the AA warrenty thats been provided by the dealer. Hence saying that they're going to try and get more money from me by saying the whole loom needs to be replaced. In this modern day and age of modular components, i find it very hard to believe that the whole lot needs to be replaced!?

I might phone up my local VW garage and see what they have to say! :( NOT good after three days of owenership.

GR
 
Hi Greg, i had exactly the same problem with my A3, i smelled the burning too and the wiring one one of my coil packs had burnt, i was covered for coil packs but not the wiring harness under warranty, however, the wiring harness wasn't that much for mine, think it was under half that price for mine. However, even though i only needed one new coil pack, Audi sent me 4 out, so i have 3 spare :D
 
http://www.worldimpex.com/parts/genuine-part-coil-pack-repair-harness_210423.html

Goes right up to 2006, the 1.8T engine coilpack connection methord didn't change, its a cheap part, i've now found looms for just about every revision of the 1.8T so parts can be found easy enough and for cheap, take that to a garage and tell them to fit it, you need to know your model number / chassi number / 1.8T Engine Revision / car year.
 
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Firestar_3x said:
http://www.worldimpex.com/parts/genuine-part-coil-pack-repair-harness_210423.html

Goes right up to 2006, the 1.8T engine coilpack connection methord didn't change, its a cheap part, i've now found looms for just about every revision of the 1.8T so parts can be found easy enough and for cheap, take that to a garage and tell them to fit it, you need to know your model number / chassi number / 1.8T Engine Revision / car year.
Click to expand...

MK5 Golf has a 2L TFSI engine and diffrent connectors on the coil packs how can a 1.8T loom fit ?
 
Thing is though, is this suitable for the 2.0 Turbo (FSI?) engine?

I've just called up VW in Milton Keynes to ask them for some clarification. We'll see what they say about the loom!

thanks for the help
 
Indeed i forgot that, anyhows i can't see it being split any differently than the 1.8T's loom VW seem to do things very consistently, can't find anything on the on-line parts cats since the car is too new, download the VW parts software yourself if you want a quick part number and guide price.
 
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