GM DIS coil packs

[04SpecV]

What is with these things? :

A couple years ago I bought a 95 Beretta with the v6.. It had this wierd miss. When replacing the plugs, wires I found a rusted connector on one of the coils. Cleaned the rust of as best as I could, later replaced the coils. No problems again.

Now my sisters car 00 sunfire 2.2 started running really poorly +check engine light... Father had a garage change plugs(same result). I decided to change the plug wires, fuel filter. Of course I find a rusted connector for one of the plug wires. Same style coils. I ended up replacing the coil with one of my old Beretta coils.

Why would just ONE connection rust. The boots seemed to be sealing well.
Could it be due to the plugs being wore out, causing excessive current? Maybe just the connectors werent plated good from the factory?

 

[jamesn]

GM plating is CRAP. been there done that. and the main wiring connecters suck too. i spent about 800 bucks chasing electrical gremlins in a 93 seville. it was in one of the main wiring connectors to the fuel injectors. i pulled the rest of them apart to have a look. 3 of the 7 i looked at had signs of water intrusion. cleaned them up and put a tube os silicone on them to seal them.

 

[brianl703]

They probably didn't put any silicone dielectric grease in them from the factory. (The main purpose of silicone dielectric grease is to keep water out).

The new trend seems to be to not put any sort of grease in terminals anywhere on the car. I've seen that on GM, Ford, Chrysler, Honda..you name it. On the other hand, my 1988 Mustang GT has grease (the white stuff; I think it's lithium-based) in all of the important computer-related connections.

The new grease that I got from the Ford dealer ($8/tube) appears to be Nyogel 760G, and it's a little thinner than silicone dielectric grease. It's clear and has a slight bluish tint to it..which I later found out is the UV tracer dye which makes it glow bright blue under a UV light.

BTW, what was then GM's main supplier of electrical connectors, Delphi, sells to many other automakers too.

Even the Chinese have copied Delphi's connector designs. Look at those replacement headlight socket connectors at Wal-Mart and notice how similar they look to Delphi connectors. They look near identical, down to the 3-rib seal.

[ December 25, 2005, 11:50 AM: Message edited by: brianl703 ]

 

[04SpecV]

Well if they had no grease, seems wierd only one connection rusted on both cars. I would have rather seen them all rusted.

 

[brianl703]

It could have been a bad seal, allowing moisture in. Even if it looks OK that doesn't mean that it is, and the grease is additional insurance that there won't be a problem due to moisture.

Perhaps all of them would have rusted out if the wires were kept in service long enough. Do you know if the wires were the originals? I think maybe the seal on these wires breaks down over time.

 

[04SpecV]

I'm pretty sure they were original plugs +wires.
The car has 67K on it. The 95 beretta had 46K on it when I bought it.

 

[labman]

I am not sure how you would tell which is which, but they use both sides of the coil and one has reverse polarity from the other. The positive one could rust more.

 

[OdinsRage]

jamesn, i had 2 1992 sevilles with 4.9

both of them never ran right and i spent so much time replacing everything and nothing worked.. maybe this was the case LOL