Coil packs...

[Katiebug]

My old dealer's service guy was pretty sure that Loki was made late enough in the '03 model year to not have coil pack problems. After my atrocious experience with their service department in July, I decided to change to a new dealership anyways for my next scheduled maintenance at 35K miles.

My hand was sort of forced on Sunday - husband and I were out running errands and when I pulled into a parking spot, Loki started shaking. I figured that since we were there, we might as well run our errand! So about 40 minutes later when we came back out and I started her up, she was still shaking and this time the check engine light went on.

I managed to get her home (not far) and checked the owner's manual...it said it was OK to drive it to the dealership so I did. Loki still felt safe to drive and I planned to stop immediately if it got worse.

The engine sounded sort of rough at all speeds and in 1st gear/idle the car was shaking something awful. I got the car to the dealer's lot without incident and left the key in the drop slot.


I got a call this morning - one of my coil packs failed. Loki made it to 33K miles and 2+ years of ownership before it went. The dealership is replacing all of them. They also pulled a code that said the throttle body is malfunctioning, so they're replacing that tomorrow morning (needed to order the part). 100% of the work is under warranty, so no worries there from my end! The service manager at this new place seems really nice and I think I'll be sticking with them in the future.


A guy I work with is an Audi enthusiast and this morning as soon as he heard that something was wrong with my NB, he pegged the coil packs. I guess I figured if Loki made it this far, they were probably fine.

Is it common for coil pack problems to hit the engines in '03 NBs?

[noR]

I really don't know about the coilpack issues; I slipped in before they changed packs.

But it sounds like you've found a great dealership to take on your problems like that. Who are they?

[Katiebug]

Originally Posted by noR

But it sounds like you've found a great dealership to take on your problems like that. Who are they?

VW of West Hartford, in West Hartford CT.

[dnyed]

In my '02, they didn't go out for almost two years. It was so bad, though, I had it towed in. One afternoon, and I was all fixed up! I, too, thought I was in the clear.

Not!

Glad to hear you found a good service department.

[The Cheat]

Originally Posted by Katiebug

VW of West Hartford, in West Hartford CT.

Told you! The Valentis are the bomb...

Justin (was TDIrookie)

[Katiebug]

Well, Loki is still broken. Apparently after they got everything fixed today, the car started having weird electrical system faults and they need to contact someone at VW to figure out exactly what's wrong.

Justin - you were right, the Valentis are great! I'll give the dealership a thumbs-up especially since this afternoon they arranged for me to get a rental car to use (at their expense). The service guy is hopeful that they can fix the electrical problems by tomorrow afternoon.

Incidentally, the rental/loaner car is a Jeep Cherokee and driving that sucker makes me miss Loki in a major way!

[The Cheat]

Originally Posted by Katiebug

Well, Loki is still broken. Apparently after they got everything fixed today, the car started having weird electrical system faults and they need to contact someone at VW to figure out exactly what's wrong.

Justin - you were right, the Valentis are great! I'll give the dealership a thumbs-up especially since this afternoon they arranged for me to get a rental car to use (at their expense). The service guy is hopeful that they can fix the electrical problems by tomorrow afternoon.

Incidentally, the rental/loaner car is a Jeep Cherokee and driving that sucker makes me miss Loki in a major way!

They did the same for me too at Watertown when my 04 2.0 crapped a clutch. Turns out the clutch they had wouldn't work and they got me into a VW Passat W8.

[kcfoxie]

So is there one or multiple coilpacks in the car? I have a 2.0, not a turbo..

[Fowvay]

Originally Posted by kcfoxie

So is there one or multiple coilpacks in the car? I have a 2.0, not a turbo..

Instead of having plug wires we get individual coil packs. Basically it looks like a big spark plug cover with a little rectangular box on top.

So ya... theoretically. More individual spark control, much increased longevity, no wear items (no moving parts), no wires to replace... etc

However VW in thier ultimate wisdom decided that the original Hitachi parts were mass overkill and decided to turn to a different manufacturer. This led to a long series of updates sometimes several times a month on coil pack numbers and they continunally had to debug them

The irony is that the newest packs on the 2.0 Turbo are virtually identical spec to the old APH coil packs and low and behold made by Hitachi again.

Hopefully VW has finally learned that sometimes saving a buck can cost you 100's of millions.

[kcfoxie]

Ok, but the 2.0 has a single coil pack with 4 leads for each plug... correct?

[Jian]

yes, 1 coil pack, 4 plug wires

[kcfoxie]

and how does one know when it's on its way out?

[Pulgamovil]

Basically yuo dont know, it simply starts shaking...if its coil that fires up the 3 or 1 cilinder you have MAJOR shaking....
The check engine will light up inmediatelly and if you accelerate it will blink....
Coilpacks finishing with a H in its code are the bad guys...