SchumacherSeicento
New member
Hello, I am a new member and have only just introduced myself in the 'Newbie' section. I hope someboy will not mind advising me on a problem I've got. My apologies for the essay but I figured it best to supply as much information as possible?
It's a 51 plate and has done 23,500 miles, no problems up until now. 5 minutes into my journey from cold, the orange engine light came up on the dash and the car started spluttering. Pulled over and had a look under the bonnet, wiggled some things, got back in and it seemed ok once restarted albeit with the warning light still showing. Another half a mile, same thing again and I couldn't get past 20mph, or rev past 2000rpm. Pulled over and sounds like it's running on 2 cylinders. I called out the AA whose diagnostics gave a 'PO351' code, which I was told is Coil A primary and secondary circuit failure. Upon further investigation, it seemed that there wasn't a proper signal from the sender lead to the coil (with a test bulb inserted in the other coil's lead it flickered when cranked but Coil A's didn't - however when placing one leg of the test bulb to one pin on the Coil A lead it lit up solidly, the leg placed into the other pin of the lead showed nothing - I don't know what if any bearing that had on the diagnosis!)
He did a continuity test from the plug end up to the loom just before it plugs into the ECU and he said that was fine and that it probably is an ECU fault but would advise an Auto Electrician to look at it.
So that is where I am currently. After some searching I found references to a common fault on these MPI ECU's and a faulty coil pack causing the ECU to fail and to get the ECU repaired and 2 new coils. My ECU is the same code and hardware revision as another I saw pictured on here also.
Is this the route I should take or does anybody think I would need an auto electrician to look first. I'm low on funds and it was also booked in for it's MOT on Thursday aswell, then it's tax time once that's done
Thanks for bearing with me and I really would appreciate any help from the forum members here.
Kind regards, Jon
It's a 51 plate and has done 23,500 miles, no problems up until now. 5 minutes into my journey from cold, the orange engine light came up on the dash and the car started spluttering. Pulled over and had a look under the bonnet, wiggled some things, got back in and it seemed ok once restarted albeit with the warning light still showing. Another half a mile, same thing again and I couldn't get past 20mph, or rev past 2000rpm. Pulled over and sounds like it's running on 2 cylinders. I called out the AA whose diagnostics gave a 'PO351' code, which I was told is Coil A primary and secondary circuit failure. Upon further investigation, it seemed that there wasn't a proper signal from the sender lead to the coil (with a test bulb inserted in the other coil's lead it flickered when cranked but Coil A's didn't - however when placing one leg of the test bulb to one pin on the Coil A lead it lit up solidly, the leg placed into the other pin of the lead showed nothing - I don't know what if any bearing that had on the diagnosis!)
He did a continuity test from the plug end up to the loom just before it plugs into the ECU and he said that was fine and that it probably is an ECU fault but would advise an Auto Electrician to look at it.
So that is where I am currently. After some searching I found references to a common fault on these MPI ECU's and a faulty coil pack causing the ECU to fail and to get the ECU repaired and 2 new coils. My ECU is the same code and hardware revision as another I saw pictured on here also.
Is this the route I should take or does anybody think I would need an auto electrician to look first. I'm low on funds and it was also booked in for it's MOT on Thursday aswell, then it's tax time once that's done
Thanks for bearing with me and I really would appreciate any help from the forum members here.
Kind regards, Jon