2004 Smartcar Fortwo problems

robgti

robgti

robgti

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Hi my partner is having a bit of bad luck at the moment with her Smart car. Just last week she had to pull out £150 for the front springs and now yesterday on her birthday she broke down.

She managed to get the RAC to get her home and the bloke said it looks like one of the coil packs has gone. Just after a bit of advice to see if people think the same. The engine is running badly. Sounds like it is missing on one of the cylinders and there is a burning horrible smell which the bloke said is from the CAT having too much unburnt fuel in it.

Now to try and save her a hundred quid or so i am going to change the coil pack but obviously i wanna be pretty certain it is that.

What do you think? I have 'messed' around with cars quite a bit but mainly on my old 205 gti and this is totally different.

Thank you

Rob
 
is there an owners forum that can give specifics ive changed a astra coil pack as it was running like a dog only took half an hour
 
I have got a guide etc to be able to change it i just do not want to change it and find out that was not the problem.
 
The coil pack is dead easy to change, and pretty cheap to buy. Even if it wasn't the coil pack it wouldn't be at a great loss, but it sounds to me as though it is.
 
I'd have thought the RAC man would have had a quick look at the diagnostics.

Can you get hold of a code reader, or does the Smart have the facility where you bridge a couple of pins in the OBDII port and it flashes codes?
 
All the RAC man did was have a listen to the engine and said it was the coil pack. I have not looked in to the fault codes yet.

Also there is three coil packs on it so will have to find out which is at fault
 
Cant the RAC supply and fit a new one to "get her going" again?
 
ajstan said:
The idea of RAC is to try and fix your car at the roadside with the tools he has, he can't go back and fourth sourcing the various parts he needs for every single car?
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Really? Iv had the RAC go away and get a battery, and a couple of other bits for me over the years.

Maybe your using a different RAC.

http://www.rac.co.uk/uk-breakdown/free-fitting.html

The relevant bit to read on that page says the most common part fitted are ignition coils etc.
 
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robgti said:
I have got a guide etc to be able to change it i just do not want to change it and find out that was not the problem.
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You'll need to get the fault codes to find out exactly the problem, are all the coil packs the same could you only buy one one try each one? the Astra I changed sounded like the hg was gone and was firing on two cylinders wouldn't even go up a hill, no power at all
 
ajstan said:
Maybe the ones I've seen are just lazy.

Did he let you keep the battery? Or was it to just get you home?
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No no, i paid the 100 quid for the battery or whatever it was and he fitted it free.
 
maccapacca said:
You'll need to get the fault codes to find out exactly the problem, are all the coil packs the same could you only buy one one try each one? the Astra I changed sounded like the hg was gone and was firing on two cylinders wouldn't even go up a hill, no power at all
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Yeah they are all the same. I was going to run the engine and unplug each one and the one that does not change anything should be the broken one.
 
how did you conclude it was the broken one? What engine is in the 2004, is it still the 'MCC' 3 pot twin spark? iirc they had a habbit of om nom'ing the #1 piston.

Have you tried swapping the coil packs round to see if the fault moves? If you unplug both HT leads for the 'faulty' cylinder does the engine note change, and if not - are you getting spark on them?
 
I started the engine up and one by one unplugged the coil packs. As luck would have it, it was the last one i unplugged which made no difference to the engine note.

It is the 3 pot twin spark engine yes. The engine still starts fine but you can tell it is not running on all cylinders when you give it a little throttle. Trying to look at the cheapest or easier things.
 
did you check if the coil pack was giving a spark though?

by unplugging it you just showed that the spark (if it was sparking) was having no effect, so it could be that there is no fuel getting into the cylinder, or it has lost compression. You need to work methodically work to find which it is.

I would check if the coil pack is sparking, if it is, move onto a compression test. (But when doing that, check the plug when you take it out to see if its wet with fuel). If it isn't sparking, look at the wiring from the coil pack to the ECU. I've no idea if the ECUs have a rep for dropping ignition drivers or not.
 
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