Technical abarth coils...just a quick one

[Donkey]

i know the coils on the abarth are a weak spot...
if they have broken, do they die completely and not work or do they half work producing a small spark???
anyone know a simple way of testing how well coils are working??
cheers

 

[Argonought]

i know the coils on the abarth are a weak spot...
if they have broken, do they die completely and not work or do they half work producing a small spark???
anyone know a simple way of testing how well coils are working??
cheers

There are a huge number of threads on coils so use Search (don't need to Search on 'Abarth' as coils are the same for all petrols)

The basic answer to your question is that coils can fail intermittently - which means the only safe way to check is by substitution.

 

[s130]

and the easy way to diagnose a duff coil is to gewt at least one (preferably 5) short spark plug leads and insert them between the spark plugs and coils. Then borrow/purchase a timing light preferable with a clip on "hall effects" or current clamp. If the timing light flashes correctly witout missing a beat then that coil is working OK. Work your way down the rest. The cheapest timing light you can buy is a in circuit series neon lamp.

If you can get a timing light of any type then you can use a crocodile clip and piece of wire. Connect the wire to the crock clip and then clip the crock onto the cylinder head. With the engine running offer the bare wire end to each of the extension spark plug leads metal connection so as to allow the spark to occur at/on your bypass circuit. If it spraks and the engine revs die then not only do you have a working coil but also some compression. Repeat for ramaining cylinders. No spark then you have a duff coil. If spark but no loss of revs then you have potentially have poor compression on that cylinder.

PLEASE NOTE CAREFULLY. Depending on the capabilities of the ECU then a duff coil may cause the ECU to stop fuel injection to that cylinder. HOWEVER if you deliberately short circuit spark test or otherwise stop the spark then raw fuel will be injected and then exhausted into the catalytic converter. This should be avoid and at least minimised so as to not damge the CAT.

Because of this I would recommend ONLY doing a bypass/short test ONLY when the engine is cold. Also ONLY dump the occasional spark and do not leave in place for more than a second or so.