Replacing coils in car

L

leafs

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Is it normal to have 4 coils replaced at the same time? This was advised by garage. Cost 402 euro parts and labour.
To be honest i do not even know what a coil is.
It is a 02 automatic renault clio. THis is the third time they have been replaced in the five years i have owned the car!
 
The coil is the unit that supplies the voltage to the spark along the spark lead.

Why did they advise you?

Is the car not running smooth?

Don't know the configuration of the clio, but the Fiat Punto my wife had 2 coils and they used to fail every 2 or so years but it was a common problem and you would know one was gone when the car started misfiring.
If you can find where it is and access it easy enough, its just a matter of loosening off the bolts securing them, unplugging the lead and replacing.
 
Yes the car was sputtering and reving.
First two replacement occasions occured under warranty.
To be honest i am not mechanically inclined to replace them myself.
 
Not normally,thats just the garage taking the easy route and not bothering to track down the faulty coil.As was said earlier its a simple job replacing the 4 coils but its slightly more difficult tracking down one faulty coil.
 
as caff said its just the mechanic taking the easy way out ,and not picking out the sick coil which is easy to do with those pencil coils,
they do give trouble but id only change the one which is gone as they could go at anytime and the customer would think you shafted him when there replacing one a few months later as they go all the time
 
The whole lot of these coils are prob going to go over the next few months. Esp if the driver has driven with one of these coils mis-firing and
then the other ones are under strain to comp the problem.

However the garage has "advised" him to replace them all so as he doesn't break down 4 seperate times and pay the same labour 4 different times.

I'm sure they have told him which coil is down but it's only common sence to replace them all if you have this much problems with coils. At least this way they will last another two years.
 
No, never informed which coil was faulty. I have owned other cars and never heard of coils being replaced. Spark plugs, yes.
 
Just had this done on a laguna yesterday. Started running badly and a warning light came on. Went to Renault garage who said that it was probably ignition coils. The sold me 2 for €160 and sent me to a small nearby garage to get them fitted as they didn't have anyone available.
The technical way he tracked down the faulty coil was to disconnect them one by one with the engine running. If the engine sound changed he assumed it was working and checked the next one. Turned out to be coil 1 which he changed.
Charged me the grand total of €20 and said they would probably all need to be changed. Left the other one in the boot as a spare. He said they were often a problem.
Only one bolt holds them in so they are quite easy to replace.

Might get the rest of them changed when I have to have it serviced next.
 
Mr2 said:
The whole lot of these coils are prob going to go over the next few months. Esp if the driver has driven with one of these coils mis-firing and
then the other ones are under strain to comp the problem.
Click to expand...

The purpose of an individual coil is to provide voltage and a spark to an individual plug. The correctly functioning coils will not "conpensate" for the faulty one.

Other than that I do agree with the rest of your post. They should all be replaced when one goes.
 
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