Ok so today my enigine light (blinks) came on and the car vibrates at idle and while driving. The last time it did this it turned out to be a bad coil. THe problem is that i dont want to take it to the mechanic again and spend an s load of money when it sounds like an easy fix. So how can i tell if the coil has gone bad. A couple of post suggest i go to auto zone and run a scan for the codes. Is there another way? and what size socket do i need to remove the spark plug? Please help Also where can i buy the coil pack the dealer just sounds so expensive.

 

If you have a laptop your best bet is to get on eBay a cable that will work with the shareware Vag-com software (download from ross-tech.com).
This will tell you which cylinder is misfiring.
You can get a coil at Autozone for around $30.00 but they may have to order it for you.

 

OK so I did what a post suggested. First with the car running I pulled out the first coil the one closest to the hood. Because there was a significant change in the engine vibration I assumed it was good. The second when pulled showed no change in engine vibration nether did the third coil. The 4th coil however caused the engine to stop I assumed it was good because there was a change in the engine. So I when i drove the car to autozone to buy the coil packs the car lost a significant amount of power and it vibrated (vibrate = misfire?) harder than before. I was driving it prior to this with some vibration but the power was still there. Eventually the car shut off. I was able to turn it on and drive it back home very slowly and underpowered. I opened the hood and there was smoke coming from the back left side of the engine. Im assuming that was from a previous oil leak I had. But this muffler looking thing next to the engine on the back left side glowed orange. What can that mean. So I replaced the 2 and 3 coil but the car is still under powered. Any ideas would be appreciated. Help full ones. Its an audi a4 1.8t 2003

 

wow how funny the same exact thing happened to me i need whats the best set of coil packs to buy i just has them replace the one bad one but im thinking of buying a new set

 

Help what can i do do i need to buy a new coil pack for the 4th cylinder?

 

If youre driving it to autozone anyway to get the part why dont you just use their code checker and that will tell you which one it is. The exhaust is probably glowing bc you are dumping a lot of unburnt fuel into your catalytic convertor, which is not good.

You either need to buy a code reader, or rent one from autozone. It is a must for these cars.

What is the brand of the coilpacks you are getting from autozone?

 

Yeah I asked autozone but they said that they dont lent or do code checks no more. Because pepboys complained to the state indicating that it was unfair because autozone was stealing their customers. Dam only in California. I heard about this free program vac or something like it that lets you do your own code checks. Any ideas where I can get it. An why would that cataytic converter do that soon after I unplugged the 4th coil and plugged it back in.

 

They where duralast coils from autozone.

 

Sure that's not just the box? I just bought one from autozone this weekend, it came in a duralast box but it was an Audi/Bremi coil.

 

your cat was probably like that before, or maybe the driving did it. the vag com thing requires a special computer cable that you would have to order.

i would get coils from the dealer or order the hitachi ones online. autozone wont rent you a reader either?? there has to be a place that will.