gtstcactus

Test the coil for spark by removing coil to dizzy H/T lead from the dizzy or resistance test?

LeX2K

Check for spark, if none then check resistance on primary and secondary of the coil this will rule out a bad coil.

ES300NZ

OMG, .. you're dead right I'm atlittle embrassed I made that mistake, I was probably thinking of rev limits.

oh I've seen that on some nissans (sr20de's), that's a terrible design, but it seemed to work fine.

gtstcactus

I did some tests etc... it all pointed to a repeat incident of the coil failing again...

So I purchased a new one this time which had very different resistance specs... The car has been back on the road for a few days now and no signs of it crapping out again...

I have to say this dying & no spark business has really made me lose faith in the car.... What I mean is I'm now in a constant state of worry about it happening again while I'm out driving!

pauloil

why? you put an old coil in it. now you have a good coil that works fine.

ES300NZ

my friend and I once bought a used transmission, for his car.
* We installed it (at great effort I might add), put the car in drive, got about 10 feet and it crapped itself. $350 wasted.
* we bought another one $300 (used), installed it, it did about a month and started slipping suddenly.
* So we removed it and installed another one $550+GST (15%) from a reputable national chain figuring the issue was it our dodgy suppliers. It died in about a month.
* at this point, we're really scratching our heads. He gave up, sold the car for little more than what it would be worth for scrap to a friend of ours who solved the issue (blocked transmission cooler), that guy installed another transmission and never had an issue with that car until he sold it.

I know it's hard when you're having issues with a car to want to keep chasing the problem, or throwing parts at it (that gets expensive), .. I've been there a few times myself. Sometime it's better and smarter to just sell it, after all you have to draw the line somewhere.

I sell a car when the next lot of repairs are 50% of it's subjective value on the used car market.

But the truth is, a car is just a collection of parts that work together, theres no reason you can't keep a car going for a very very long time once all the issues are solved.

gtstcactus

Why??? Well the old coil worked fine for about a day....

Now with the new coil in I'm worried there is perhaps something in there that is causing the coils to burnout / fry / fail etc.....

Perhaps it was just bad luck with the old coil but my confidence has been shaken so to speak....

Is there anything that can burn out or cause coil failure???

gtstcactus

Given I've done all the labour myself for this entire round of issues it's only cost me the price of parts which were mostly very reasonable.....
Valve cover gaskets & plug seals
Control arm bushings
Rear wheel hub assembly
head light restore
Hand brake improvement
Engine mount
PS & alternator belts
Ignition coil & h/t leads

The parts cost on the whole was not an issue in relation to the vehicles value.

If I had to pay a mechanic to do the work the vehicle would probably now be being picked over at the self service wreckers....

As long as I can keep doing the work I'll keep this car going for a while yet! If nothing else I'm enjoying the education I'm getting!

I'd just like to thank everyone who has provided advice and assistance to me thru out this!