So what does it actually do

Theres one coilpack per cylinder, they boost the electrical power to make the plug spark, which ignites the fuel etc..etc. Hope this is fairly accurate /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif.

When the coilpack fails your engine develops a misfire because you are only running on 3 cylinders ie it runs like a dog. You aren't advised to drive too far, even though the car will run, because it can feck up your catalytic convertor.

Mine went before Xmas and I drove 15 miles to my dealer, I assume this didn't damage the cat because they didn't say anything when I picked the car up.

Christian

Rather than having one coil and a load of leads plus a distributor, condensor, rotor arm etc.. like on old cars.

Modern audis effectively have one coil per cylinder which connects directly to the spark plug.

The ecu triggers them directly when they need to spark.

These individual coils are potted into packs of two or more (I think they are in twos on the Audi A3, but could be wrong)
These are referred to as coilpacks

Does anyone know if this effects all models, nad is it any particular years that are failing.


Thanks. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif