I Reckon My Amp And/or Coil Is On The Way Out

[shalmaneser 26]

OK, so recently for some reason I've been getting a total lack of power. Obviously while driving this is annoying, but generally the power will come back after a couple of seconds as the engine 'jumps' itself due to the motion of the car. Not particularly fun when you're driving though.

 

When stopped the engine just dies. It'll generally restart, but its getting to be a bit of a PITA. You certainly can't drive the car anywhere confidently.

 

Due to these symptoms I'm convinced its an electrical problem. So, things to change:

 

plugs

leads

distributor

amp

coil

 

It's got new plugs and leads anyway. I'm going to replace the rotor cap with a new one.

 

However, getting hold of an amp or a coil is proving to be difficult. We know that the gti is sensitive to the quality of the ignition components, but i can't find anywhere able to sell a new bosch coil or amp at a decent price. Does anyone have any smart ideas?!

 

I'm not a massive fan of the 'known good' alternative, given that I'm sure all the amps and coils about were 'known good' at some point until they broke. Certainly mine was fine before it crapped itself!

 

Oh yeah, are there any ways of testing the coil or amp to figure out which is busted? I'm leaning toward the idea of the amp being no good at the moment, just gut feeling really though!

[Tom Fenton 1,548]

Are you certain it is ignition related, when my 8v did a similar thing it turned out to be a faulty air flow meter. Driving along and all of a sudden no power, then suddenly back again. When I had dodgy ignition bits, it tended to misfire about about 5k rpm.

[shalmaneser 26]

Hmmm, maybe you're correct. I may have a go re-tracking the AFM if that's the case.

[mr_exe 1]

I found an ignition amp that was the same Bosch part (0 227 100 123) as one for a Vauxhall Corsa amongst other so I asked my local Vauxhall dealer and it was cheaper than my local Factors

 

Ignition module details

[craigmi16 0]

i have had electrical problems with my 205 mi16 i thought it was maby an amp so i replaced it with one with the same number (0 227 100 123) and it was even worse than before cost me 51 pound from a trade supplier dingbro. it was a bosch one it would run fine up to 3.5k and then splutter n miss realy badly so its now at peugeot ecosse to sus the problem, fix it and a remap

[shalmaneser 26]

Well, I seem to have fixed it. I changed the starter motor, which I've been meaning to do for ages, and while I was down there I checked all the earths and connections, and the earth to the coil wasn't 100% IMO, so i cut it all back to good copper, smeared on a dab of copper grease and bolted it all up again, and she's running as sweet as a nut (famous last words).

 

went for a bit of a blast (lovely weather for it BTW) and not a hint of trouble. Sometimes these old girls need a bit of TLC every now and again, lesson learned!

 

Also, I cleaned out my throttle body (en route to the starter motor!), and unhooked the coolant lines and rerouted them so that the throttle body is not in the loop - straight from the thermostat bleed point back to the header tank. I reckon it's one less thing to go wrong and heating a throttle body seems like a waste of effort. Has anyone else done this and what were the results? I can understand the TB being heated in Scandinavia or something, are they prone to icing up here too?

[SurGie 54]

Im glad its all sorted out now.

 

(little tip) > I had trouble with the amp, it played up when the weather got hot so i got another one & problem solved.

[Simes 248 2 Cars]

i have had electrical problems with my 205 mi16 i thought it was maby an amp so i replaced it with one with the same number (0 227 100 123) and it was even worse than before cost me 51 pound from a trade supplier dingbro. it was a bosch one it would run fine up to 3.5k and then splutter n miss realy badly so its now at peugeot ecosse to sus the problem, fix it and a remap

 

I had the same too, it seems you can't rely on an identical brand new Bosch replacement.

I located an older used one (same part number and a Bosch too) which worked fine.

Edited February 6, 2010 by Simes

[davey sprocket 14]

Also, I cleaned out my throttle body (en route to the starter motor!), and unhooked the coolant lines and rerouted them so that the throttle body is not in the loop - straight from the thermostat bleed point back to the header tank. I reckon it's one less thing to go wrong and heating a throttle body seems like a waste of effort. Has anyone else done this and what were the results? I can understand the TB being heated in Scandinavia or something, are they prone to icing up here too?

 

Funnily enough, I changed my starter last weekend and did exactly the same. These cars don't really suffer from icing, and in our climate don't really need the coolant routing through the throttle body. Maybe it helps that the throttle is sat a couple of inches behind the radiator!

 

My reason for re-routing it is that my car is the 1.9 with power steering and the remote oil filter/ cooler set up and there's just waaaay too much going on in that area above the starter.... to the point that I couldn't get the oil filler pot to go down low enough and it always rubbed against the underside of the bonnet. So, a couple less coolant pipes and a bit of re-routing of the starter cable and I've got a bit more room to play with.

 

 

Did your starter motor have the bloody great extra bracket on the arse end of it?? Mine did and this coupled with all the oil lines and stuff meant there was no way it was coming out with the inlet manifold in situ. Taking the manifold off made it a much bigger job than I'd anticipated. Needless to say, I left the bracket off the starter when re-fitting the replacement.

[shalmaneser 26]

Funnily enough, I changed my starter last weekend and did exactly the same. These cars don't really suffer from icing, and in our climate don't really need the coolant routing through the throttle body. Maybe it helps that the throttle is sat a couple of inches behind the radiator!

 

My reason for re-routing it is that my car is the 1.9 with power steering and the remote oil filter/ cooler set up and there's just waaaay too much going on in that area above the starter.... to the point that I couldn't get the oil filler pot to go down low enough and it always rubbed against the underside of the bonnet. So, a couple less coolant pipes and a bit of re-routing of the starter cable and I've got a bit more room to play with.

 

 

Did your starter motor have the bloody great extra bracket on the arse end of it?? Mine did and this coupled with all the oil lines and stuff meant there was no way it was coming out with the inlet manifold in situ. Taking the manifold off made it a much bigger job than I'd anticipated. Needless to say, I left the bracket off the starter when re-fitting the replacement.

 

It was a bit of a fiddle but it was fine really - no brackets in sight.

 

I can't believe the change from simply swapping the starter motor. I'm still mentally waiting for the 'tick tick' every time I turn the key but it just doesn't happen any more! the sound is completely different too - much more modern.

[mainline 2 1 Cars]

Was going to suggest you checked connectors and earths / wires etc. Mine was similar and I went round changing all kinds of stuff, the amp, the afm, the fuel pump relay, the pump, and all along it was just a corroded earth to the fuel pump which was shorting out when it got hot and making the car cut out.