Dumbest Engine Oil YouTube videos you’ve seen

And if one coil is putting out more power than the (failing) coil you need to replace, and then the new coil is putting out more power than the ones already in there... Yeah, they tell you to replace all at once.

Keeping the brand the same would be the best thing, as well.

Replace them all new or replace them all used out of an engine that didn't have a problem with the coils and were all OEM, same difference, just replace UNIFORMLY.
Chevy Cruze made sure that would never be a problem.

 
I'm starting to think that Nate's Interactive Auto guy is not only an idiot, but also incredibly dishonest. He did some sludge removal tests with additives and it's pretty obvious the guy cleaned the stuff up physically by hand and then made a click-bait video about it. For some reason his videos keep getting recommended on YouTube. At least he now uses an actual oil filter cutter rather than a grinder. Quite the mystery as to how his grinder cut filters had burnt media and "rust" inside the filters on quite a few, and then none of them have the same issues once moving to the less destructive filter cutting tool. LOL

The truth is that clickbait and dishonesty on YouTube actually work quite well to get views. I guess it's tough to blame folks for playing the game the way it was designed.
 
And if one coil is putting out more power than the (failing) coil you need to replace, and then the new coil is putting out more power than the ones already in there... Yeah, they tell you to replace all at once.

Keeping the brand the same would be the best thing, as well.

Replace them all new or replace them all used out of an engine that didn't have a problem with the coils and were all OEM, same difference, just replace UNIFORMLY.
Chevy Cruze made sure that would never be a problem.


That's not how it works.

The coils are fed up from the drivers which are just essentially dedicated 12V contacts that provide a fixed amount of power while the other side is the trigger. If the coil itself is weak or breaking down, it may not draw as much power as the others, but a fresh coil won't draw more than used coils. A coil energizes and delivers UP TO the limit of the unit to jump the gap. If the coil gets weak, that limit is reduced, and if the gap grows due to wear a weak coil may not be able to provide sufficient energy to make the jump, resulting in a misfire.

"back in the day" the driver had to feed a single coil that provided fire for all the cylinders, before that, we had points and condensers where a cam made/broke contact to trigger a spark.

Here's a standalone coil driver setup for Holley's DIY EFI, reading through the manual for it might help you.
 
That's not how it works.

The coils are fed up from the drivers which are just essentially dedicated 12V contacts that provide a fixed amount of power while the other side is the trigger. If the coil itself is weak or breaking down, it may not draw as much power as the others, but a fresh coil won't draw more than used coils. A coil energizes and delivers UP TO the limit of the unit to jump the gap. If the coil gets weak, that limit is reduced, and if the gap grows due to wear a weak coil may not be able to provide sufficient energy to make the jump, resulting in a misfire.

"back in the day" the driver had to feed a single coil that provided fire for all the cylinders, before that, we had points and condensers where a cam made/broke contact to trigger a spark.

Here's a standalone coil driver setup for Holley's DIY EFI, reading through the manual for it might help you.
I'm at work so I had to read quickly BUT upon quick read I don't think I am quite understanding; I wasn't making the claim that a new coil would be putting out more power,.. except maybe than whatever it's replacing.. rather that all the coils should be putting out the same power, and sort of like you just said the weaker coil is not putting out as much power because of failure within that weaker coil, which is why it's the weaker coil? (So okay may e you could get that put of what I said... I can tell you from personal experience that two Accel. coils and four AC Delco coils on an inline six engine and it won't run right. Some of the coils were probably marginal or wore unevenly, if that makes sense.)

not trying to frustrate you but I don't quite get what you're saying and my experience has been that when you replace them all at once, whether with a set of the same new ones or the same used ones where there wasn't a problem with the coils on a car it came out of, you wouldn't have any codes like you would on a Nissan Maxima which is very picky about coils and the engine ran like it was supposed to without any stumbling or issues. So I do see why you should replace them all at once but I'm not quite getting how replacing just one won't throw off the balance, specifically versus the other coils (which may or may not be nearer to failure than that one.)
 
I'm at work so I had to read quickly BUT upon quick read I don't think I am quite understanding; I wasn't making the claim that a new coil would be putting out more power,.. except maybe than whatever it's replacing.. rather that all the coils should be putting out the same power, and sort of like you just said the weaker coil is not putting out as much power because of failure within that weaker coil, which is why it's the weaker coil? (So okay may e you could get that put of what I said... I can tell you from personal experience that two Accel. coils and four AC Delco coils on an inline six engine and it won't run right. Some of the coils were probably marginal or wore unevenly, if that makes sense.)

not trying to frustrate you but I don't quite get what you're saying and my experience has been that when you replace them all at once, whether with a set of the same new ones or the same used ones where there wasn't a problem with the coils on a car it came out of, you wouldn't have any codes like you would on a Nissan Maxima which is very picky about coils and the engine ran like it was supposed to without any stumbling or issues. So I do see why you should replace them all at once but I'm not quite getting how replacing just one won't throw off the balance, specifically versus the other coils (which may or may not be nearer to failure than that one.)

To make this as simple as possible:

A coil either works to fire a plug or it doesn't. A spark plug either sparks, or it doesn't. A plug that fires intermittently is one that is misfiring and the cause can be either a weak coil or a bad plug. A dead miss is one that doesn't fire at all. Are we clear so far?

So, there is no "balance" to coils. They are all fed 12V and they are all just triggered by the ECM. If they are of sufficient health to fire the plug properly, there will be absolutely ZERO difference between it and a brand new coil. Still with me?

Like with anything that isn't a wear item, replacing it "just because" isn't being prudent, particularly for things that often times last the life of the vehicle, which coils often are. Now, there are exceptions. If an OEM spec'd a crap part and you KNOW absolutely that they are all going to die, like the CPS sensors on an E39 M5 for example, well, these are isolated cases and should be approached with that knowledge in mind, but for a typical situation with no history or evidence of mass failure, one doesn't just start replacing things that aren't wear items without proof that they are defective.

Now, when you start firing the parts cannon at at something without doing proper troubleshooting, sometimes you don't fix the problem, so you throw more parts at something and then arrive at the conclusion that doing this "fixed it".

It's certainly possible to develop more than one defective coil, but that's still not an argument for replacing all of them, which can be quite expensive on larger engines. I ended up replacing 3x coils over the ownership of our Expedition, my dad has replaced 2x IIRC. That's over 150,000 miles on the remaining 6x coils in his. The troubleshooting and diagnosis was done using Ford Mode 6 data which shows misfire counts for each cylinder and then specifically changing that coil, which is how this is properly approached. Ford's misfire counter is insane and it takes a VERY bad situation for it to register a CEL.

With some OEM's It is quite possible that you may have more than one cylinder showing misfires and replacing the one you thought was defective doesn't solve the problem. This requires clearing the counters and checking it again. Best practice here is to move the coils around and confirm that the misfire tracks with the suspect coil. You can have a series of misfires triggering the counters on multiple cylinders and it has nothing at all to do with the coils and there is an unmetered air leak. Proper troubleshooting is key.

Aftermarket coils can be a total crap shoot too. I did the "Accel performance coil" dance with a couple of my EEC-IV Ford vehicles when I was much younger and two of them left me stranded. Had an MSD coil die on me too so I went back to an OEM Ford coil. Once I did some actual research on EEC-IV, I discovered the OE TFI coils were ridiculously capable and trying to go above and beyond with an aftermarket offering was a complete waste of time and money, there was nothing to be gained, even with an ignition box, which I added to the Lincoln (MSD 6A), and which worked just fine with the stock Ford coil.
 
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To make this as simple as possible:

A coil either works to fire a plug or it doesn't. A spark plug either sparks, or it doesn't. A plug that fires intermittently is one that is misfiring and the cause can be either a weak coil or a bad plug. A dead miss is one that doesn't fire at all. Are we clear so far?

So, there is no "balance" to coils. They are all fed 12V and they are all just triggered by the ECM. If they are of sufficient health to fire the plug properly, there will be absolutely ZERO difference between it and a brand new coil. Still with me?

Like with anything that isn't a wear item, replacing it "just because" isn't being prudent, particularly for things that often times last the life of the vehicle, which coils often are. Now, there are exceptions. If an OEM spec'd a crap part and you KNOW absolutely that they are all going to die, like the CPS sensors on an E39 M5 for example, well, these are isolated cases and should be approached with that knowledge in mind, but for a typical situation with no history or evidence of mass failure, one doesn't just start replacing things that aren't wear items without proof that they are defective.

Now, when you start firing the parts cannon at at something without doing proper troubleshooting, sometimes you don't fix the problem, so you throw more parts at something and then arrive at the conclusion that doing this "fixed it".

It's certainly possible to develop more than one defective coil, but that's still not an argument for replacing all of them, which can be quite expensive on larger engines. I ended up replacing 3x coils over the ownership of our Expedition, my dad has replaced 2x IIRC. That's over 150,000 miles on the remaining 6x coils in his. The troubleshooting and diagnosis was done using Ford Mode 6 data which shows misfire counts for each cylinder and then specifically changing that coil, which is how this is properly approached. Ford's misfire counter is insane and it takes a VERY bad situation for it to register a CEL.

With some OEM's It is quite possible that you may have more than one cylinder showing misfires and replacing the one you thought was defective doesn't solve the problem. This requires clearing the counters and checking it again. Best practice here is to move the coils around and confirm that the misfire tracks with the suspect coil. You can have a series of misfires triggering the counters on multiple cylinders and it has nothing at all to do with the coils and there is an unmetered air leak. Proper troubleshooting is key.

Aftermarket coils can be a total crap shoot too. I did the "Accel performance coil" dance with a couple of my EEC-IV Ford vehicles when I was much younger and two of them left me stranded. Had an MSD coil die on me too so I went back to an OEM Ford coil. Once I did some actual research on EEC-IV, I discovered the OE TFI coils were ridiculously capable and trying to go above and beyond with an aftermarket offering was a complete waste of time and money, there was nothing to be gained, even with an ignition box, which I added to the Lincoln (MSD 6A), and which worked just fine with the stock Ford coil.
Yeah, my experience did involve Accel coils as well.

Okay, so.. it is either 0 or 1... On or off... Or, like in EENG 101.. 0V (📴) or 5V (on) .. no in between?

Only thing still a little bit lingering is.. I thought you could have a "marginal" coil. Why are the aftermarket or non-OEM so bad if they are either "on" or "off?" I'm a lot closer to understanding.. just start at the beginning and have me forget what I thought I know. That's the best way for me to "get" it, to overwrite...
 
OVERKILL, a quick add, so that maybe you can address some questions I had, about the coils:

1. So, a coil (especially a marginal or failing one) can't be receiving the 12V (I never did think it got "more power".. it gets the same power as all of them. I'm clear on that) and then essentially act as a transformer and only put out 10V, 10.5V, 11V.. something you could pick up onna controlled multimeter test, and cause.. an Intermittent Misfire, like a P0301-P0312 let's just say? (Yeah I know the last two are the cylinders. 12, let's say on a BMW 850Ci. lol)

2. Similar to the above question.. If 5 could are "in good shape" and one is failing, and you do the "pull the wire" test and hear one with NO change. Would that be the one with the "Dead miss?"

Thank you.
 
Yeah, my experience did involve Accel coils as well.

Okay, so.. it is either 0 or 1... On or off... Or, like in EENG 101.. 0V (📴) or 5V (on) .. no in between?

Only thing still a little bit lingering is.. I thought you could have a "marginal" coil. Why are the aftermarket or non-OEM so bad if they are either "on" or "off?" I'm a lot closer to understanding.. just start at the beginning and have me forget what I thought I know. That's the best way for me to "get" it, to overwrite...

A marginal coil is one that will breakdown under load or heat. It is barely adequate to work under "normal" circumstances and fails when jumping the gap takes more energy than it can deliver. We had one of those on our Expedition, it would only misfire going uphill, so you had to have high load plus low RPM. My dad had one that would only mis once it got hot, which is also common.
 
OVERKILL, a quick add, so that maybe you can address some questions I had, about the coils:

1. So, a coil (especially a marginal or failing one) can't be receiving the 12V (I never did think it got "more power".. it gets the same power as all of them. I'm clear on that) and then essentially act as a transformer and only put out 10V, 10.5V, 11V.. something you could pick up onna controlled multimeter test, and cause.. an Intermittent Misfire, like a P0301-P0312 let's just say? (Yeah I know the last two are the cylinders. 12, let's say on a BMW 850Ci. lol)

2. Similar to the above question.. If 5 could are "in good shape" and one is failing, and you do the "pull the wire" test and hear one with NO change. Would that be the one with the "Dead miss?"

Thank you.

The "pull the wire" test was a good way for checking for a dead plug (or injector) back before COP. With COP it is best to just use a diagnostic tool, locate the suspect cylinder and then move the coil to another cylinder to confirm the miss follows the coil. If it does, you know that coil is FUBAR and you replace.

This is NOT something, as @Jetronic noted, you would test with a multimeter. These things put out 10's of thousands of volts (luckily they are low current, so they won't kill you typically). They operate on the principal of inductance. You have 12V energized through it, which creates a magnetic field and then when the coil is triggered (circuit is broken) the voltage spikes, the magnetic field collapses, energizing the secondary windings which act as a multiplier (because there are far more secondary windings than primary) delivering 10's of thousands of volts.
 
A marginal coil is one that will breakdown under load or heat. It is barely adequate to work under "normal" circumstances and fails when jumping the gap takes more energy than it can deliver. We had one of those on our Expedition, it would only misfire going uphill, so you had to have high load plus low RPM. My dad had one that would only mis once it got hot, which is also common.
Oh yes. When hot. It takes a LOT more juice to fire when 🔥 Hot, right?

I think that's why they say.. Only get A Delco coils for a 4200.
 
The "pull the wire" test was a good way for checking for a dead plug (or injector) back before COP. With COP it is best to just use a diagnostic tool, locate the suspect cylinder and then move the coil to another cylinder to confirm the miss follows the coil. If it does, you know that coil is FUBAR and you replace.

This is NOT something, as @Jetronic noted, you would test with a multimeter. These things put out 10's of thousands of volts (luckily they are low current, so they won't kill you typically). They operate on the principal of inductance. You have 12V energized through it, which creates a magnetic field and then when the coil is triggered (circuit is broken) the voltage spikes, the magnetic field collapses, energizing the secondary windings which act as a multiplier (because there are far more secondary windings than primary) delivering 10's of thousands of volts.
Peaks and valleys, square waveform on the scope?
 
Oh yes. When hot. It takes a LOT more juice to fire when 🔥 Hot, right?

I think that's why they say.. Only get A Delco coils for a 4200.

No, I don't believe it takes a lot more juice, it's when the coil is hot, they can breakdown. Particularly if they are already starting to fail or if they are dodgy. The Excel in the lincoln would completely crap the bed when it got hot. Would give it a while to cool off and I was able to drive it home.
 
No, I don't believe it takes a lot more juice, it's when the coil is hot, they can breakdown. Particularly if they are already starting to fail or if they are dodgy. The Excel in the lincoln would completely crap the bed when it got hot. Would give it a while to cool off and I was able to drive it home.
Had a Grand Am like that. Wouldn't start when hot. Was a weak coil.

Hear doesnt increase resistance? (Or does cold increase resistance)
- or.. I think what you might be saying is that neither one of those should cause enough of a difference to make a difference in normal operating conditions?

I bought a couple of used cars where the main coil that fed the spark plugs or distributor was weak and caused issues, primarily when hot.
 
Peaks and valleys, square waveform on the scope?

You could follow it energizing on the 12V side with a scope, but that's not telling you valuable info about what's happening on the secondary side in terms of coil health. That's why it is typically best to just use the ECM's ability to provide diagnostic data.
 
OVERKILL you are really really reminding me of this video. I really think you would like this one. A lot. I do.

 
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