Replacement ignition coils

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Has anyone any experiences, good or bad, of replacing Renault 'pencil' ignition coils with pattern parts? (set of 4 for the price of a single Renault coil) :confused:
My thoughts are they can't be much worse than the originals, which seem to have quite a short life expectancy anyway :evil: .
 
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My local factor supplies Valeo, Sagem, Bosch and Intermotor coils.....each seems to be as good as the other, and loads cheaper than the Renault main stealer.
John :)
 
somewhere like gsf stock original equipment coils for a fraction of the price, i've never had an issue with pattern bits but coils i would be inclined to use oe spec
 
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Thank you for your opinions. I'll give the cheap pattern coils a try, and report back if they turn the job into a nightmare.

Renault, naturally, recommend changing all four as a set, but i suppose they would at their prices :rolleyes: .

OOI is there any way of testing these coils on the bench? I seem to remember a test rig from many years ago (may have been for magnetos) with multiple electrodes. It indicated failures by which pair of electrodes the spark was generated between.
 
It is recommended to change them as a set, especially if you have a mixture of grey top and blacktop ones. There was a problem with them a few years ago (can't remember if the new ones are grey or black as was a long time ago that i done one!) so they updated them. The old ones used to melt, which wasn't ideal!
 
Well, I said I'd report back....
The cheap 'n cheerful coils work as well as the originals (grey tops, by the way, on both sets), but didn't solve the problem....

Nor did a set of plugs.
Nor did a new crank position sensor.
Nor a temperature sensor.
Nor the lambda sensor
Nor cleaning and testing the MAF.
Nor a new air filter.

The main stealer said 'There's nothing wrong with it". Nice of them to record the symptoms and 'No fault found' on their invoice though. That may be useful later.

It has the local independant Renault specialist baffled. There's no errors in the ECU (well, there were some concerning the airbags, but not exactly related). They suggest replacing the cat. next, although that may be desperation setting in.

Anyone else have any ideas?
It is a 2005 Kangoo 1.6 16V Automatic.

Poor starting.
Very low idle speed / stalling when cold.
Poor pickup from idle, even when up to temperature.
Cutting out completely above about half throttle.
Any sudden movement of the throttle causes an audible blowback into the inlet manifold, or cutting out completely until the throttle is closed again.

I would say that has all the classic symptoms of an over-lean mixture. If it had an SU carburettor, I would be winding the main jet down a couple of turns, or try driving with the choke on to see if it improves.

Getting up hills or around roundabouts is quite an adventure at the moment. It took about 5 miles of the M4 to accelerate up to 70 after a stop at Leigh de la mare services yesterday evening, and utterly refused to climb the gentle (by local standards) hill from Pontypridd to Graig.

Then, just to add to my woes, shortly after finally reaching 70MPH on the M4 on the return trip, I met a pigeon coming the other way - Time for a new windscreen now as well! :evil:
 
Going back to basics, are all cylinders firing?
Do you have equal compression on each cylinder?
A lot of people try to rely too much on computer diagnostics and forget the basics!

Another check which may be worthwhile is to get the injectors checked that they are fueling correctly.
 
The original coils were made by Sagem for Renault. They later changed to Valeo as their supplier. There are other makes of coils around, i.e: Beru. Regarding your running problems, is the exhaust partially blocked ? if not, it really needs investigating by a diagnostic specialist.
 
Compression and injection are all OK, and it has already been to the diagnostic specialist. That's where the suggestion of changing the cat. came from.
 
Take it to a different/proper diagnostic specialist, who will tell you what's wrong with it rather than just guess. A blocked or inefficient cat an be detected on a gas analyser. Start the engine and put your hand near to the exhaust. Is it pumping out the exhaust gas quite strongly ? Get someone to switch the engine off, and listen to the exhaust. Is it hissing when you turn the engine off ? This is the sign of a blocked exhaust.
 
Got there in the end! It was all down to a dent in the bottom of the fuel tank!
The car is a wheelchair carrier, with a lowered floor and a non-standard aluminium fuel tank. Because of the low ground clearance, the tank is vulnerable to damage from sleeping policemen etc. There was a dent in the tank directly below the fuel pump.

Take the pump out of the tank, and it works fine. Drop the pump back in the tank, and the dent in the bottom blocks the pump inlet.
 
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