Getting at the Pencil Ignition spark plug coils

I wonder if anyone can give me some guidance on how to get at the pencil ignition coils on my C4S? OPC told me that two of mine were cracked, so rather than taking out a loan or mortgage to get the job done at OPC I've decided to try and change them myself. I've purchased the units from GSF, but now need to get them installed. Lifting up the engine hood I can't see how to get at the coils. Has anyone done this job, can you give me some guidance please?? :bandit:

They are absolute b*st*rds to get at (or at least 2 of them are)... I paid an Indy to do mine for me - IIRC it was less than £200 all in - and that included the price of the coils. ProMax Motorsport near Milton Keynes did mine - don't know if that's within reach for you?

Thanks Wattie, do you know if there are any covers to remove first? Let's hope the two that need replacing aren't the b******s! BTW some of your comments on other questions have me in stitches - keep em coming :worship:

For a minute there I thought I'd had an OPC bargain ALL six done for £233.21 inc VAT (at 17.5% as it was November 2008) Then I read small print: "there is no additional labout time to change the coils if they are done at the same time as the spark plugs are being changed in the service" So probably still paid too much :sad:

if you are choosing to do them yourself, ideally you get the car on some stands and remove the rear wheels , just makes it easier. you will then see you have a tin sheild covering the coil packs, this will either be held on with 10mm head bolts or torx head bolts, take off the bolts and the shields slide back towards the gear, one of them will be a it of a ***** to slide out but will come out.. you will then see the coil packs of which will be held in with either a 5mm allen screw or torx40 screw, when you have the 2 screws of each coil depending on how many your doing you will need to disconnect the plug terminal by pushing the clip on the plug under the rubber protector.. the 2 that are tw@ts to get to are the ones that are most rear no 1 and no 4 (closest to drive belt)but you will struggle the most with the o/s one.. HTH :thumb:

if you are choosing to do them yourself, ideally you get the car on some stands and remove the rear wheels , just makes it easier. you will then see you have a tin sheild covering the coil packs, this will either be held on with 10mm head bolts or torx head bolts, take off the bolts and the shields slide back towards the gear, one of them will be a it of a ***** to slide out but will come out.. you will then see the coil packs of which will be held in with either a 5mm allen screw or torx40 screw, when you have the 2 screws of each coil depending on how many your doing you will need to disconnect the plug terminal by pushing the clip on the plug under the rubber protector.. the 2 that are tw@ts to get to are the ones that are most rear no 1 and no 4 (closest to drive belt)but you will struggle the most with the o/s one.. HTH :thumb:

I am getting good at doing these, do as said above but I also drop the silencers out, it only takes half an hour to do BUT you can get a the coils far better and more importantly not cross-thread those ruddy M6 bolts. *ADVICE* Use Silicone grease. Smother them in it. I would take all of the out and plaster them all. It is advised in a tech-bulletin to do this, it keeps prevents water ingress.

Thanks Porsceuro, I've got to take the rear wheels off as the handbrake drums need adjusting. Amazing but this isn't included as part of OPC major service! :thumb:

Fiddly, takes time, but not that difficult. I've done my plugs last week as part of my 48K and now running very sweet. I've put in iridiums, got them from Opie oils £50 all in. I didn't remove the mufflers as i didn't want the grief of them blowing if i couldn't get them back together nicely (originals from 2000) thought I'd wait until they go. The plugs nearest the belt have to be done almost blind but with the correct tools isn't too bad. This is what i found: For the m6 bolts, i recently bought a small stubby socket set from Robert Dyas for £10 by Kamaso I think, it has a spinner for the ratchet head which made the m6 bolts a breeze. The spark plug removal and replacement needs the right tools as well, Porsche recommend a Snap-on extension which i believe is 5" long, could i find one? 4" is too short and 6" too long to remove the plugs. I ended up using 2 x 3" extensions and the spark plug socket, this means when you withdraw the plug you need to dismantle the extensions to remove the plug. Fitting is the reverse. When you are removing the connection at the top of the coilpacks, push the rubber housing up as much as you can to get at the release clip, this will make it that much easier to get back on at the end when working blind. Lloyd told me that the Bosch coils are far superior to the Berus so i will be replacing them all at some point. He also insists that silicone grease ensures moisture is kept out and it also helps sliding the pencils into the plug tubes on fitting.

Can someone describe the symptoms of cracked coil packs to me? I have them on 1 and 6 according to the inspection when I bought my car and am planning to get them all changed shortly, but I'm not sure if they're the cause of a hesitation (feels like a slight misfire) I get especially accelerating at fairly gentle throttle (say away from traffic lights) in 2nd gear. Doesn't seem to be an issue when I'm booting it and much less noticable in other gears... I know my clutch is beginning to go too so I'm not sure if that's causing the symptoms or the coil packs. Ta v much.

In the initial stages of failure you will experiece slight missfires during tick over which don't throw a fault code but will be picked up on PIWIS or Durametric. If driven in the wet this will no doubt cause heavy random missfire, on your car you should see P0300, P0301 & P0306 P0300 = Random missfire P0301 = Missfire cyl 1 P0302 = Missfire cyl 2 & so on Sounds silly but coil failure can cause premature clutch failure as more revs are required to make the car pull away without kangerooing. Thus meaning slipping the clutch to avoid.

FYI The coil pack layout is as follows: Starting at the passenger side of the engine working from the rear going forwards Cyl 1 is nearest the rear bumper, cyl 2 in the middle and cyl 3 nearest the passenger door. Then on the drivers side, start again at the rear working forwards cyl 4, 5 then 6

Thanks Lloyd Six Can't say I've noticed needing more revs to pull away or having to slip the clutch, but I have been advised the clutch needs replacing soon.