Engine Management light on and juddering.

[Jayjay23]

Right I have a 1.2 2003 ibiza which is undrivable.
The car will judder with no revs and will misfire when accelerating.
Ive had the coils replaced and the spark plugs replaced and had a new crankshaft sensor installed.
Then someone said it was the ecu so i sent that off to be repaired and tested but the test said that the ECU was in good working order so now im stuck.
Any idea's?
Its the AZQ model.
Many thanks.

 

[ib04tom]

i know its a long shot but have you tried running it with one coil disconnected at a time to see if got sold a broken one. Friend had it happen to him.

 

[RUM4MO]

Have you had the static timimg checked as these engines get a bad name for the timing moving out due to jumping a tooth or maybe stretching the chain (guessing there)?

 

[Jayjay23]

thanks all for the recent answers. Today I tested the coilpacks by pulling the packs out whilst running. Two were fine and the car turned off however when i pulled the coil from out of cylinder two the car did nothing and this is the one which came up on the diagnostics. I tried the good coilpacks on the cylinder and they didnt work either so it must be inside the cylinder itself. what could this mean?

 

[RaggedLob]

I have no idea about why the other coilpacks don't work in the cylinder, but these are EXACTLY the same symptoms i had when coil pack 1 failed..

It was done in 5 mins by my mechanic for £40, you should not pay much more than this for it.

It could be that you were unlucky, and when the coils were fitted one was already broken or something :/

 

[RUM4MO]

thanks all for the recent answers. Today I tested the coilpacks by pulling the packs out whilst running. Two were fine and the car turned off however when i pulled the coil from out of cylinder two the car did nothing and this is the one which came up on the diagnostics. I tried the good coilpacks on the cylinder and they didnt work either so it must be inside the cylinder itself. what could this mean?

Maybe you now need to remove all the plugs and check that they look okay and are not wet - although the injector for a recognised "failed coil cylinder" should be shut off.

 

[connor ibiza]

iv just had this problem, if you have replaced your plugs with new ones then they have got to be fine, it does sound liek your coils.
1. Start your engine and listen to how it ticks over, turn engine off
2. Open the bonnet, take the airbox off and take the left coil out and disconnect
3. Start the engine, is the tick over any different? If it idles worse than before, that coil is fine and working (it will idle worse because you are disconnecting a working coil). If it idles the same, that coil is dead and needs replacing (by disconnecting, it doesnt make a difference because it is already not working.

I hope this helps, if it doesnt solve your ploblem then..... errr... good luck! haha

 

[nick0323]

Yup, we've all been there, I didn't take a chance and bought 3 new ones for £100 from VW as these parts are subject to continous improvement so I didn't want to get OEM ones. The ones I bought were 7 years newer than the ones on the car.

Easy to replace yourself mate rather than getting a garage to do it. They quite simply pop out. I done it, let it idle for a few minutes, took it for a short motorway trip and the ECU cleared the fault light.

I'm going to stick to changing them to every 40,000 miles or 4 years (whichever is soonest). Though I may end up keeping 3 new ones spare in the boot and when one goes I'll immediately pull over and change the lot, easy stuff.

Standard rule for any car with ignition coils or a coil pack...always keep a spare one in ze boot!

 

[Seat Adam]

Spark plug gaps?

 

[Slimy]

If the other coilpacks don't work in that cylinder, that suggests the LT wires to that cylinder are damaged in some way, either in the connector or the wire itself is broken. I'm not sure what the testing method would be for the wires though, apart from a visual check?

 

[Slimy]

Though I may end up keeping 3 new ones spare in the boot and when one goes I'll immediately pull over and change the lot, easy stuff.

Standard rule for any car with ignition coils or a coil pack...always keep a spare one in ze boot!

Same here, I've got a set of three in the boot, I figure if three fail all at the same time I must be really unlucky!

In fact, I have three coilpacks and no spare wheel, which says everything about what I think might fail first!

 

[RUM4MO]

I'd hope that by buying newer VAG supplied coils that you will have seen the last of this problem. I've only ever, in 7.5 years, changed one coil in my wife's Polo 9N 1.4SE - and that coil was bought via ebay so was NOS - ie exactly the same mod level and DOM as the ones fitted to the car. I think that the issue with these coils was covering a relatively short manufacturing period - where the supplier had moved manufacturing plants to a cheaper labour zone!! I have since bought another, newer coil as a spare - just in case, also, try to stick to Eldor coils (made in Italy).

 

[Slimy]

I thought Bosch make the OEM coils?

Whenever I'm doing car electrics, I always try and aim for the Bosch version, and they've never let me down.

 

[nick0323]

Bosch probably are the supplier as the genuine spark plugs for this engine from VW are made by Bosch. Yes bosch!

However OEM ignition coils seem to have a tighter seal making them difficult to remove by hand should it fail. You will need a lever or something to jimmy it out. I had a tough time removing my OEM one but the two genuine ones came out with ease.

 

[Slimy]

Bosch probably are the supplier as the genuine spark plugs for this engine from VW are made by Bosch. Yes bosch!

However OEM ignition coils seem to have a tighter seal making them difficult to remove by hand should it fail. You will need a lever or something to jimmy it out. I had a tough time removing my OEM one but the two genuine ones came out with ease.

I believe SEAT actually have a specific 'coil removal tool'. It looks pretty much like a really wide screwdriver with a fold in it...

The tighter seal is probably a good thing, saves moisture getting on to the metal part of the coil and on to the plug itself.

Just whatever you do, don't twist coils, they will break! They need to be pulled straight up. I found out to my cost that if you twist it, like you might do with other tightly fitting items, it will break the internals and you'll spend ages getting the rest of the coil out from the top of the spark plug.

 

[Seat Adam]

The coils odn't need a type of electrical lubricant on them do they, I just remembered a mate of mine had a Ford Mondeo and that should have some on it. His didn't and it was running rough, some guy looked at it, didn't change anything, just put this stuff in it and it sorted the problem. Can't remember what it was though.

 

[RUM4MO]

On the "Bosch" issue, I don't think that Bosch are a factory supplier for coils or spark plugs - coils tend to be Eldor or Beru and plugs tend to be NGK or Beru - each time Beru comes out as the "suspect" company that tends to move its manufacturing plant around a bit to cheaper (for them) areas of the world. That tends to cause us the owners a bit of money. You will always find that a company like Bosch, that does supply some specific parts to VAG will use th eterm OEM supplier and then just launch in with some rebranded crap which does nothing to improve their image in the aftermarket scene - after you have worked out what game they are playing! Almost as bad as Lucas renting its name out for a third world third party to apply to parts that Lucas traditional used to sell.

 

[nick0323]

I've always used the same dealer to get my parts.
When i got spark plugs for my Lupo Sport they gave me NGK ones.
When I went to get some for my Polo 1.2 they gave me Bosch ones.

Does not compute!

 

[RUM4MO]

I've always used the same dealer to get my parts.
When i got spark plugs for my Lupo Sport they gave me NGK ones.
When I went to get some for my Polo 1.2 they gave me Bosch ones.

Does not compute!

I agree, but then I know nothing about 1.2 engines - so maybe they are now using Bosch for that one! Mind you, were they VAG branded Bosch or Bosch branded Bosch - if you see what I mean?

BTW, I've always though that ATE was not a supplier of brake pads to VAG - that was until I discovered that my daughter's Ibiza 6K had VAG branded ATE pads fitted by a garage before she bought the car!

 

[Ash_238]

The Plugs are defiantly Bosch OE.

The Pencil Coil's I believe are also made by Bosch, I've had a Genuine VW coil side by side to a Bosch Coil & they look exactly the same, unlike other wannabe OE copys. They were also both made in Turkey.