Coil Pack?

[rfn]

Yesterday I went to look at a 54 plate MX-5 1.8.

The guy asked me to come back an hour later as one of the coil packs had blown and it needed to be replaced.

Is Coil Packs a common problem (the car has been sat for a few weeks, only being moved around the warehouse he stores them in?)

(On a side note... I rang him an hour later, it still wasn't replaced, and I said to call me when it was. 24 hours later I still haven't had a phone call. Who said dealers were falling on touch times!?)

[Munter]

Reasonably common fault. It's a stressed electrical component in a nasty environment. So eventually they give up. That said mine are the orginals at over 100,000 miles.

I guess I'd expect them to outlast a battery. But I expect them to fail eventually.

[rfn]

Something to be worried about on a 4 year old car with 27k?

[Munter]

rfn said:

Something to be worried about on a 4 year old car with 27k?

I would say no. It's not something I'd be checking to see it's been replaced when looking for cars of that age/miliage.

If I saw it on a service sheet though it would not concern me.

[rfn]

Great - thanks for your rapid reply & knowledge!

Now I just need to find out why he never rang me back...

[hornetrider]

Yeah it's common. They overheat pretty quickly if the ignition is left on without the engine running. It's happened to mine, and is a pain in the ass. Easy to swap out though.

[205gtinut]

rfn said:

Great - thanks for your rapid reply & knowledge!

Now I just need to find out why he never rang me back...

Perhaps he's got something else to hide?? Surely he would be chewing your arm off, especially this time of year..!!!

[rfn]

205gtinut said:

rfn said:

Great - thanks for your rapid reply & knowledge!

Now I just need to find out why he never rang me back...

Perhaps he's got something else to hide?? Surely he would be chewing your arm off, especially this time of year..!!!

I do wonder. I rang him shortly after posting this and he didn't answer, so I left a voicemail. No response as yet. It's a shame because the car looked really nice and seemed well priced.

[205gtinut]

rfn said:

205gtinut said:

rfn said:

Great - thanks for your rapid reply & knowledge!

Now I just need to find out why he never rang me back...

Perhaps he's got something else to hide?? Surely he would be chewing your arm off, especially this time of year..!!!

I do wonder. I rang him shortly after posting this and he didn't answer, so I left a voicemail. No response as yet. It's a shame because the car looked really nice and seemed well priced.

A car dealer who is shy at answering the phone / returning your call! My advice, walk away no matter how nice the car looks, theres plenty more out there. If hes not responding to you now, imagine if you actually bought the car then had a problem.......

[franv8]

Don't worry about electronic components and age - well not in terms of early life failures. From Reliability Centred Maintenance they tend to have a fairly random failure pattern, i.e. it could fail the day after you fit it or could last twenty years...

It is fair to say of course that aging does play a part in reality, older components insulation breaks down, plastic embrittles etc.

Sorry - boring mode now switching off!

[rfn]

Managed to see and drive the car this afternoon. Absolutely loved it! Really definite that I want one now, even after driving it at 0 degrees with the roof down!

Found out that he had called my home number and left a message on there the other day so he's been excused.

Just need to get the Mondeo sold now! :-)

Cheers for the tips :-)

[Howard-]

rfn said:

Just need to get the Mondeo sold now! :-)

Or keep it just in case you need to do 3 or 400 motorway miles a week

[franv8]

No, just buy some earplugs and a woolly hat!

[rfn]

franv8 said:

No, just buy some earplugs and a woolly hat!

Already own each of those .