Ignition Coil Failure, SUDDEN!

[JXW]

Drove about 400 feet after getting my car back from driveline repairs when cylinder 1 coil failed.

Turned around and went back to shop. They checked code and put a used replacement coil on #1. Everything is fine now. No charge to me...

Because no lights on or anything before hand should I be concerned that this may have been something he fiddled with to get another work order..?

Plugs are due but not overdue.

The timing seems very odd.

 

[nomas]

If you can't prove it ....

 

[Passport1]

That is odd but explainable. I wouldn't fret much about it until it happens again and again. Makes me remember this aphorism,

“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.” Ian Flemming​

 

[D60]

{snip}
Turned around and went back to shop. They checked code and put a used replacement coil on #1. Everything is fine now. No charge to me...

Because no lights on or anything before hand should I be concerned that this may have been something he fiddled with to get another work order..?

Uhhmmmmm.........

so they fixed it for free and it's a conspiracy? Conspiracy to what? Waste their own time?

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

Got my truck back from the body shop and I had 2 or 3 coils bad. Turns out they had the hood off and it rained. Said they tried to cover it as soon as possible. I fixed it myself, even though they offered. It happens.

 

[drtyler]

This is the BMW with 156,000 miles?

Your lucky one of the coils had not already failed on you at some point. And double lucky the failure happened at the shop instead of middle of nowhere.

 

[MSCH]

electrical parts generally fail without warning. an ignition coil is an electricalpart.

 

[Furious]

Sounds to me like just bad timing, it happens. The shop swapped it out with another one for free so I doubt they did anything shady otherwise they would have tried to charge you for it.

My suggestion to you is since you say the plugs are due replace your spark plugs, check the wiring to the coils, and if you have a vehicle where some coils are a pain to get to like many V6 engines (not sure what you drive) then be sure to at least replace the ones that are a pain to get to so you don't need to pay for the labor again if you cant do it yourself if another coil decides to fail not long down the road.

 

[JXW]

Sounds to me like just bad timing, it happens. The shop swapped it out with another one for free so I doubt they did anything shady otherwise they would have tried to charge you for it.

My suggestion to you is since you say the plugs are due replace your spark plugs, check the wiring to the coils, and if you have a vehicle where some coils are a pain to get to like many V6 engines (not sure what you drive) then be sure to at least replace the ones that are a pain to get to so you don't need to pay for the labor again if you cant do it yourself if another coil decides to fail not long down the road.

Changing plugs and coils tomorrow. Thank you for the feedback and input.

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

This is the BMW with 156,000 miles?

Your lucky one of the coils had not already failed on you at some point. And double lucky the failure happened at the shop instead of middle of nowhere.

Funny, I've never had a bad BMW coil, I've replaced boots but the one part that never failed me...

 

[paulo57509]

In my experience, electrical components can fail under weird circumstances.

The fuel gauge in the LS returned erroneous readings after I removed the hush panel under the steering column to survey how difficult a job it would be to replace the ignition switch. The only thing I unplugged was the ambient air temp sensor, nothing else. After I re-installed the panel, the gauge wouldn't read correctly.