2000 Acura TL Repeat Ignition Coil Trouble

[Bamamoss4]

My Acura has been passed along to my son with 125,000 miles on it. Recently it started missing/running sluggish and the Acura dealership diagnosed as having (3) of the (6) ignition coils bad. I had them all replaced but did not replace the plugs as that had been done about 90,000 miles.

This work was done early January about 5 weeks ago and now the car is missing again and behaving in the same manner.

Could something cause the ignition coils to fail like this? Is it possible it was never the ignition coils? However, it did run well for about (5) weeks.

Interested in any feedback you folks may offer.

 

[pbm]

I had a 2001 Accord (cousin of your Acura) that was behaving similarly. I had to replace the entire distributor because the defective electronic part (I can't remember what it was called) was not sold separately. This was a 4 cyl. Accord VP and the mileage was similar.

 

[bdcardinal]

Should have had the plugs done at the same time. Ford wants their techs to replace plugs whenever a coil or fuel injector is replaced due to possible fouling.

 

[Quest]

I'm with bdcardinal on this said subject matter.

I typically replace all the plugs when coil sets are being replaced.

Q.

 

[fdcg27]

I would have replaced the plugs when I did the coils.
Still, the plugs should not have been bad enough after 35K to cause the new coils to fail.
Something else is going on here which may call for the knowledge of a sharp and experienced Honda tech.
Or, the new coils were junk at installation and were defective to begin with.
It happens.

 

[Vikas]

When one of the Honda/Acura coil goes, the computer throws random misfire codes. It was certainly possible that only one coil was really needed to be changed when dealer replaced three. Now another one has gone. Or most likely dealer replaced the good three coils rather than the bad one!

 

[Bamamoss4]

Originally Posted By: Vikas
When one of the Honda/Acura coil goes, the computer throws random misfire codes. It was certainly possible that only one coil was really needed to be changed when dealer replaced three. Now another one has gone. Or most likely dealer replaced the good three coils rather than the bad one!

Vikas, If the dealer did in fact replace all (6) and the car ran well for about 5 weeks, would you still think this? I cannot help but believe thereis something else going on here.

Note, I do see the replies above about the spark plugs and in hindsight wonder if the fact I did not have that done (thinking they were still good after only 35K miles) is a more likely cause.....??????

 

[Vikas]

I missed your statement where you said all coils were replaced at the dealer. Were the plugs OEM NGK platinum or iridium? If so, it is hard to believe that they would go bad in 35K. On the other hand, if those are Bosch, then that is your answer right there!

Otherwise, it looks like you might have issue with the EGR flow resulting in the misfire. Is misfire always present or only under load or is it random? Finding the culprit cylinder if it is actively misfiring is easy on that engine. You may just want to swap the coil and see if the misfire moves with the coil before even taking off the spark plug. The chances of getting a bad dealer coil is exceedingly rare but could happen.

Your dealer paper work will tell you if their warranty is for 90days or 12months. If it is still under warranty then, have them take a look. I suspect, they will immediately charge you for 6 spark plug replacement unless they were the ones who had installed them 35K ago.

It is your call whether you (your son) wants to get your hands dirty or not. You will pay if you decide otherwise.

 

[steve20]

with new parts, Honda warranty is usually 3 years, except electrical stuff which is 1 year

 

[Tosh]

Read any OBD codes and report back.

 

[Bamamoss4]

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

UPDATE: It turned out not to be the ignition coils repeat as I suspected. Although the symptoms were similar to the missing that occurred earlier when all coils wee replaced. The diagnosis this time at the Acura dealer was the idle air control valve. It was replaced and no codes so far. The plugs were checked and found clean and they are the proper iridium plugs. Hopefully, some good miles left on this vehicle.

 

[Vikas]

That was not cheap! I sure hope dealer was not fishing and actually had a reason to replace the IACV.

It is disappointing that you made an effort to ask the question here but then let the dealer dictate the repairs.

Can you actually ascertain that dealer did indeed change the IACV and you have the old broken one back in your hand?