(G) abarth coils...and a few other little bits

i had a quick look under the bonnet last weekend to see if the coils had been replaced on my car. i found that i had 4 champion ones and 1 bocsh coil. could this one old coil cause my car to start abit poor at the moment??? its also very jumpy when cold. i have read a few threads on this i just wanted to clarify really.

also how do you know if you have the bose system in your car??? prefrebly without ripping it apart.

is there anyway of turning that god awful alarm off when the car is put into reverse???

1 more thing, the wipers wont work untill i flick them once then the rain sensor takes over. is there a setting somewhere were i can have it so its auto all the time???

thanks for anyhelp.

First off, coils: Champion are the way forward, they're OE ones, Sagem ones...GET RID ASAP, they seem to be the ones causing people hassle, but they're also OE. I'm not sure about Bosch ones, possibly OE, but more than likely to be replacements from a motor factor...I know Halfrauds do a lot of Bosch ignition gear (someone please correct me if I'm wrong).

Best way to check for a dodgy coil is to pull out the lead from each, one at a time, obviously replacing each one before removing the next. If you pull one and it makes no change to the engine note then you've found your knack'd coil.

As for the wipers, no idea, I got a base model with no rain sensors or anything

With the Bose system it's difficult. The components were Bose designed, not Bose built, so there's no branding on them at all. If you post up the model and year I'm sure someone will be able to tell you if they were standard on that model or not. Only other option is to remove one of the bits and check the part number. I believe the Bose comps. had different part numbers to the standard ones. I think it was Rich who looked into this in some depth, he'd be able to answer any Bose questions better than I can!

Hope I've been some help

EDIT: REF. Bose System: Sorry, just seen in the title it's an Abarth. I'm not sure, but I would have thought it would have been an option. Do you have the sub in the boot?