QuestionHello. Coming to a red light after driving 100 km on the highway, the car felt like it was going to stall. At the next lights, it did stall. I turned it over, with effort, and drove it a few hundred metres. While slowing down, it stalled again. This happened 3 more times before getting it home. I could get it started, but the engine was very noisy. Then I couldn't get it started. Figured the battery was dead, so i recharged it and it's holding a charge. Still no-start. Towed it to the dealer and they said there's no spark and want to replace the "distributor", but i think they mean the coil pack. They're quoting me 600 for an aftermarket part, and over 4 hours of labour because the coil pack is beneath the manifold. Does this make sense? Do you think this will help? this seems to be a common problem on this model. I bought the car under a year ago with 112K Km and replaced all original parts during a 500$ tune-up in August.
thanks so much,
tina.
AnswerHi Tina,
I question this diagnosis unless they tried to get fault codes from the engine controller that supported this theory. You can go to the dealer and check for codes yourself using the ignition key. Just turn it "on-off-on-off-on and leave it on" doing this in 5 seconds or less. Then watch the check engine light which will be "on" to begin to flash, pause, flash, pause, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause. Then repeat the procedure to verify the count. Then group the numbers in pairs in the order they came out to form two-digit numbers which are the codes. The final code will always be 55 which is the code for "end of readout". If you get a code 11 or 54 that would be a reason for no spark, but it would not be caused by the coil but rather by one of the sensors, which are much cheaper and easier to replace than the coil/distributor. The coil is located in the distributor of the 2.5L engine which is why it is so expensive. The 2.0/2.4L 4 cyl. engines have coil packs. Four hours to replace a distributor sounds excessive to me, also. Ask them if they did a code readout and what code(s) did they get. You can write me back with the code numbers and I can give you advice then about the fixes. You can also go to www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html for a code translator.
So check out the code question and let me know the answer before approving this repair. If you have an ohmmeter you can check the resistances of the coil primary and secondary. Ask them if they did this check or not. If so, they should tell you that the resistances were not in the range of 0.6-0.8 ohms (primary winding) and 12,000 to 18,000 ohms (secondary winding) which are the proper specs. If you draw a blank expression then I would not allow them to replace the coil. It is just too expensive to just do it on a hunch.
Another possible reason for hard starting/stalling is that the egr valve can be stuck ajar. Look for it in the small pipe that runs from the exhaust manifold on the side of the engine that faces the front of the car toward the right and connects to the throttle body where the incoming air is sucked into the engine. Along that pipe you will find a valve that has a round body and a saddle-shaped opening and a round fitting on top of that. In the opening you will see a rod with a slot. Bring along a screwdriver and try to move the rod back and forth by inserting the tip of the screwdriver in the slot. There is a spring that will close the valve tight if the rod isn't sticking due to crud. If it seems sticky, spray the rod with penetrating oil or WD-40 and once it is freed up it should start and idle again. This has nothing to do with spark, but it could explain the stalling after your drive.
Let me know what you find.
Roland
