I tried testing my coil packs as per FSM instructions and failed. I hate the damn thing (meter). Either mine is broken or I’m f’in stupid.
Anyone willing to test my 6 coil packs for me? I have multiple misfires (P0300) which new plugs fixed for about 2-3 weeks…now it’s back. I KNOW the plugs aren’t already bad and I made sure they were installed nice and tight 2-3 weeks ago. I reseated all the coilpacks…didn’t notice any idle changes while unplugging them one by one.
I had to test my coil packs with my RB25 and it wasn’t that hard, the FSM should give a range that is acceptable. But if you tested the coil with other coil packs and unplugged coilpacks and didnt notice a change it might not be the coils. Check you coil pack harness for a good power and ground.
I tried testing them.
My tester (dad’s actually) has a couple of different readouts (Ohms, Volts, etc.) and different measures or settings. I don’t know how to use it and that’s why I can’t get a proper reading. For some reason, I just don’t get it.
How do I test the harness? It’s taped up to hell…
For the amount of aggravation this is causing and the cost of parts youre throwing at it why dont you just take it to a reputable garage and get it fixed?
This isn’t related to my other thread. I fixed that LONG ago. And why would I pay someone to do it for me when I can do it myself (with the help of some folks who don’t mind helping) and save on the labor costs? Most shops charge at least $80/hr for labor. One hour to diagnose, one hour to replace + cost of parts and I’ll be paying MUCH more in the end than I would if I just do it myself (even if I do throw parts at it).
Only part I’ve thrown at this was spark plugs which cost me 30 minutes worth of work ($11). Big deal.
I thought it was the same issue youve been trying to find for months.
Nah. That was fixed by a $30 engine coolant temperature sensor and a combination of going back to stock IM/fuel delivery (the sensor got rid of the code before I went back to stock, so stock might not really have anything to do with it but I think it helped a little).
If you are trying to test impedance (ohms), select the setting on the meter that looks like the little horseshoe.
dvom’s are simple to use… take a look around on the 'net and there should be a good tutorial for you…
I’m not really familiar with your coil setup and would probably need a schematic or FSM to tell you how to test your harness.
To test the coil packs you’ll want to disconnect the coil pack from the car and use the meter to measure the resistance across ground and coil output, and whatever other points the FSM says.
Do you have 3 wires going to each coil (besides the sparkplug wire)?
I shoulda thought of that. I’ll take a look and see if I can’t figure out how to use the damn thing.
Thanks.
Yeah I have three wires. I tried doing pin 1 and 3 as per FSM (if I recall, I did this the first time I had this issue 3 weeks ago) and my arrow went from nothing (as if it was off) to the complete other side (infinity?)…
I’ll search for a tutorial and see if I can’t figure it out.
Found one:
got this off of the org site to test your coils
How to verify if your coil packs work!
Engine worked with: 1996 maxima
Requires: An ohmmeter (cheap purchase at radio shack…)
Conditions: Make sure your engine is cold, or it’ll be hot on your hands
you have 6 Ignition coil packs. 3 up front and 3 near your firewall. (when asking for new ones, they are referred to as L and R)3 are hidden behind the plastic piece on your engine that says NISSAN… simply remove the bolts and remove the plastic piece.
once removed, you should see 3 coil packs. un plug and test them one at a time.
I won’t go into how to remove them since it should be fairly obvious Simply remove both bolts (do one coil pack at a time…) and pull the coil pack out. i had one where it was very hard to get out… so you may have to pull hard…
Once out, look at the area where you removed the electrical plug. You should see a “+” on the back end of the electrical plug. There should also be the letter “B”…
the spot where you see the positive symbol, means that’s prong number one on the electrical connector.To test:
Turn on your ohmmeter and place the positive wire on the 1st prong in the electrical plug of the coil pack. The negative wire should be touching the middle prong. Verification of the ohmmeter at this time should say “0” aka infinite… if it’s anything else, the pack should be changed. Next test: reverse the wires… positive on the middle prong and negative on the 1st prong… on a new coil pack, it should give a value of approximately 1.3-1.7 mega ohms. If any of the readings are off, replace the coil pack.
Note: Firewall coil packs are extremely easy to find, simply look in the cracks of the intake header. you’ll see 3 similar looking coil packs to the front ones. The exception with these is that they are longer and look a slight bit different. removal is the same process as the front coil packs. Simply pay special attention to not dropping the screws in the intake area… it’ll be hard to get out
to test: follow the front coil pack testing method. Look for the Positive symbol, this is your first prong… and go from there
Thanks!
This is similar to the one I already have:
What setting should I be on? There is like 20 different ones. This is where I get confused cause I dunno if I’m getting a correct reading due to my setting or not.
You’ll want a range that covers 1.3-1.7MΩ, (1300000-1700000 ohms, or 1300-1700KΩ).
No problem at all!
Thanks. This will probably help me the most.
How do ranges work in general (for future reference)?
The ranges are just really for scaling the analog meters like you have for a precise measurement. If you have a digital multimeter it will auto-range (move the decimal place). If you were measuring something that was 10meg-ohms and you were in the 10kohms range the needle would max out to the right (or left?). When that happens just select the next range up until the needle doesn’t pin to the end of the scale.
One thing about the write up that made no sense is this:
“Verification of the ohmmeter at this time should say “0” aka infinite”
0 and infinite are different. When measuring resistance “0” is a short/closed circuit and “infinite” is an open circuit.
Well, for the analog meters, the needle sweeps via the given range- 1-1000 ohms, 1K-5K ohms, 1M-5MΩ (mega-ohms)- depending on the resolution of your meter and the range you specify on the meter- you’ll get a more accurate reading for, say, 1700 ohms using a scale of 1K-2K ohms, as opposed to a scale of 1-5000 ohms.
Of course, here’s a wikipedia link for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimeter
a little late on this one
Thanks guys.
I appreciate it.
I’ll give this testing thing another try.
So, without even testing the coils I found that the connection (plug and actual coil) is loose (but not visibly).
How do you guys recommend I fix that? Should I go to a junk yard and cut off a plug and wire that one up?
I jiggled it last night and car purred. Drove into work today with no issue.