I posted this in another forum with no response, figured I would move it here. My coil is slightly visible when running the car at idle in the dark. Is this normal or should I be looking into replacing the coil?

Comments appreciated.

 

If the coil is arcing, it's a sign of high resistance. Could be the coil, but most likely in the wires or plugs.

 

One wire was arcing, but it no longer doing that. FWIW, it is a very faint light around the coil...

 

Where exactly is the "light". If it is a blue corona around the wire, it is somewhat normal. Any arcing is not. A new coil wire, some dielectric grease and a check for any terminal corrosion might be helpful.

BTW, I noticed you have the same post in the fuel/ignition forum.

 

Rob-

I did not get any hits on the other one so I copied it here. I have since gone back and cleaned out the other thread.

The light is a faint blue around the metal square coil assembly.

 

I had the car out this weekend, kinda hot out - 90s. Drove for 45 minutes on highway with no issues then started to backfire. I let the car cool and drove it home, for 15 minutes it was great, then it started to backfire to the point where it threw a code. I was thinking I was in luck but it was one of those that clears with the next start. I made it home, but the ride was no fun .

I replaced the coil wire and greased the terminal, no corrosion. Blue light still present on sides of metal square part of coil when running in the dark... No plugs or wires lighting up the night...

Is the center section of the coil supposed to move a little inside the metal square?

 

What code did it throw? If it hasn't been pulled, it's probably still stored.

 

Mine does not. However I can't say for sure that is causing your issue or not.

Does your coil measure out at a high resistance? If the coil is old a new one is only like 30 bucks.

 

My coil is original equipment with 78K miles. I am gonna replace it either way as a starting point. I will update this thread once I get it installed and road test.

I was thinking of the MSD as a replacement, they appear to have two designs, any preference?

 

I have the street fire coil. Both blaster and street are pretty much rated the same. I got the street fire because it was in stock at the time.

 

hmm.......my car ran like that when the opti was dieing.......The symptoms that followed that was starting hard when the engine was hot/warm

 

I think I am headed towards both a coil and opti replacement. I was thinking do the coil first as it is cheaper, less invasive, and needs to be done anyways. Then do the opti later after testing with the new coil.

 

I replaced the coil with a new streetfire coil last night. The new coil does not move in the metal box/frame as the old one was doing. I started the car and turned out the lights and the coil is doing the same thing the old one did with the blue flashing coming from around the metal sides of the coil box/frame. It started a bit harder than normal, I will try again this weekend.

I have not yet done a road test.

 

The stock coil I just tested had a consistant 8.13 k ohms across all 4 terminals.

No road test yet. If I still have a problem in the plugs and wires, what is a good rule of thumb for testing? My old coil wire is showing 3.00k ohms.

I am assuming one of my wires is probably bad, but not arcing?

How do you test plugs?

 

Ok, I did a compare with some friends cars, a 95 with a dual plug coil and a 97 with a single plug coil. Neither has anything going on like mine.

I went back in and on a hunch looked at #6. I had an issue with #5 wire burning and figured maybe we had something similiar going on on the other bank. BINGO. I had a break in the wire. I put it all back together and no coil nightlight.

Thanks for all the input.

Now to see if it runs right. I am dying to get this to Milan. I have not had it to the strip since I put the long tubes on.