Coils stuck to spark plugs.

[Squirrelly]

Yesterday I took my 2013 B8.5 A4 Avant 1.8 (170) TFSI for a service at my local Bosch independent garage.
The car has done 48,000mls and had a full service.
The plugs are due to be changed at 57,000 according to the book so the garage asked if I wanted them changing now.

However, when they tried they found that the rubber surrounds on the long pencil type coils had more or less welded themselves to the outside of the spark plugs and they couldn't get them off without damaging the coils.
At this point I asked them to leave the plug change for the time being. New coils are circa £35 each I'm told.

Has anyone else had coils stuck to the plugs and if so is there a non-destructive way of getting them off?

Thanks.

 

[Retroman]

I've neither seen this mentioned before nor encountered it personally when working on petrol cars generally. As far as I am aware, the Audi ignition coils do not have direct contact with plug-to-rubber but are instead metal sleeve-to-plug top. There are plenty of "how to" Audi A4 spark plug changing videos on YouTube and all suggest a bit of "trickiness" pulling out the coils nice and vertically when they are clipped tightly to the top of the plugs. You can buy a specific tool to help pull the coils nice and vertically without needing to lever them which applies possibly destructive sideways pressure. Whilst we are only talking on a forum and I'm not on the spot so to speak, I can't help but feel a little "doubtful" about the alleged problem that the garage has relayed to you.

 

[rum4mo]

I tend to agree in general with the above posting, though I have always found that the metal sleeve which will be for screening as much as anything else, is lined with a rubber sleeve that grabs/seals over the plug insulators.

Though, I would not have expected a Bosch Service Garage to have any problems with this task, I used to use just 2 screwdrivers to ease off these coils in my wife's old Polo and daughters current Ibiza, but soon ended up getting a coil puller kit as a (requested) present - and even bought the later type for my S4, ie the expanding split sleeve ones. So, maybe you need to work out which version of coil puller you need for your coils and get them off these plugs - or if that scares you, book it into Audi as they will have the most suitable tools for removing them - might even be paste applied at same point either to assist with a good connection at the HT end, or/and to assist with stopping these coil seals grabbing hold of the plug insulators.

 

[T-800]

Coil pack puller is an essential piece of kit to be honest........

As is dielectric grease when refitting them.

 

[rum4mo]

My mistake, I already had the tool for my S4 in the Laser Tools Coil Puller Kit, it was for my wife's 2015 Polo with the 1.2TSI engine I bought the expanding slit sleeve version for!

 

[Squirrelly]

Many thanks for your replies.
It seems that the garage I use doesn't have or know about coil 'pullers'.

I think I'll look into booking in with the main dealer to change the plugs.
Trouble is, the Bosch garage has looked after my A4, my wife's A1 and my daughter's TT for years so I'll feel somewhat uncomfortable explaining that I've been somewhere else.
Yes, I know I'm a paying customer but when you've forged an otherwise good long-term relationship...