Ignition Coil Packs - How to test them...

[defcon1]

Hello guys,

A number of you have said that you are having trouble with your coil packs. When you take your car to a mechanic, they tell you that they are all bad and that you have to change them all...basically because they have no idea how to test them.

The following procedure has been extracted from Maxima.org and provides a simple methodology as to how our coil packs are to be tested. I have no idea (yet) if it works as I have had no time to test the method. Perhaps one of you can verify ...

How to verify if your coil packs work!

Engine worked with: 1996 maxima
Requires: An ohmmeter (cheap purchase at radio shack....)
Conditions: Make sure your engine is cold, or it'll be hot on your hands

You have 6 Ignition coil packs. 3 up front and 3 near your firewall. (when asking for new ones, they are referred to as L and R)

3 are hidden behind the plastic piece on your engine that says NISSAN... simply remove the bolts and remove the plastic piece.

Once removed, you should see 3 coil packs. un-plug and test them one at a time.

To remove them, simply remove both bolts (do one coil pack at a time...) and pull the coil pack out.

Once out, look at the socket. You should see a "+" on the back end of the socket itself. There should also be the letter "B"....

The spot where you see the positive symbol, means that's prong number one on the electrical connector.

To test:

Turn on your ohmmeter and place the positive probe on the 1st prong in the electrical plug of the coil pack. The negative prove should be touching the middle prong. Verification of the ohmmeter at this time should say "0" aka infinite... if it's anything else, the pack should be changed. Next test: reverse the wires... positive on the middle prong and negative on the 1st prong.... on a new coil pack, it should give a value of approximately 1.3-1.7 mega ohms. If any of the readings are off, replace the coil pack.

Note: Firewall coil packs are extremely easy to find, simply look in the cracks of the intake header. you'll see 3 similar looking coil packs to the front ones. The exception with these is that they are longer and look a slight bit different. removal is the same process as the front coil packs. Simply pay special attention to not dropping the screws in the intake area... it'll be hard to get out

to test: follow the front coil pack testing method. Look for the Positive symbol, this is your first prong... and go from there.

 

[fcruz3r]

test coilpack

this method works at times..but due to some coils misfiring under heavy load (boost) or when hot ...its not easy to do as you cannot simulate the load on the coilpack...and plugging them off when hot is not the easiest thing to do

 

[heterodyne]

i did it the easier way, start the engine, unplug each coil from the loom the car rev should drop a couple hundred rpm or the car will sound just as if it is about to die(but won't). If one of the plug u disconnect didn't have any effect then you should know that cylinder or plug got prob already.

 

[sb3]

i did it the easier way, start the engine, unplug each coil from the loom the car rev should drop a couple hundred rpm or the car will sound just as if it is about to die(but won't). If one of the plug u disconnect didn't have any effect then you should know that cylinder or plug got prob already.

. This method would work on the conventional distributor system but not on the with direct ignition/ coil packs of the cefiros. Each cyclinders have their own firing sequence after getting signal from the ecu. Misfiring could jump all over the places and it is quite difficult to detect.