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Schtoo

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Just what the title says.

Driving along, A/C doing it's thing yesterday while it was hot outside, and hello, what's this smell? Smells like a burning cutoff wheel. But that truck in front just seemed to do a one-tyre-fyre so maybe that was it. Drive along, not a care in the world and then...

Where's my power gone? Why won't it idle? Why am I at 12V? Huh? What?

Nurse it all the way back to work, then home again. No power, no fan, maybe popped alternator?

No, no spark on 1 & 4 coil. Dammit! Supercheap has coils, lets get a set and swap them out.

Did that when I got home, and while it's got more power than it did yesterday afternoon, it's still missing fire in a couple cylinders. Drivable, mobile and all that, but I'd really like to have my somewhat punchy ecotec back to normal.

Going to throw a new DFI module at it on Monday, and would I be correct in thinking that a burned smell and missing 1-2 cylinders would explain that? Just don't want to keep throwing parts at it, I'd rather throw the right parts at it. And if I can, maybe I'm going to chicketchit out and get the mechanic to do it. Can't be asred if he's going to get me the bits anyway. That said, he got me some holy grail genuine lion-on-the-packet parts a little while back for less than the cheapest, suspect-as parts on fleabay were going for.

(Coils are 212,000km old, they can stay retired now without me shedding a tear...)

Stu.
 
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vr304

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How old are your leads and sparkplugs? I’d be doing those too as they are common failure points
 

losh1971

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I wouldn't bother changing the DFI unless you have one lying around. The Repco, Burspn etc ones are junk. The only decent one is a AC Delco but they are over $300. This makes it an expensive replacement when it will unlikely change anything.
 

Schtoo

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Leads are not that old by appearance, and not in question. Plugs, not bad enough to be the problem.

It is however the distinct lack of spark on the RHS coil, and only the RHS coil regardless of which coil gets put in that spot, that tells me DFI has dropped it's guts. Swapping coils around takes all of 3 minutes, and the failure doesn't move.

And we're not talking an intermittent, perhaps slightly annoying thing here, we're talking a complete failure for a coil in that position to do it's thing. If there was a way to not replace it (as in the thing won't run because the problem was further down the chain, like a crank sensor) then I'd not bother swapping it either. Maybe the current crop are crap, but they've got to be better than my completely cooked one. ;)

FYI, 4 cylinder commodores suck. :(
 
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Schtoo

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Update, DFI replaced, car fixed. Running better than ever. Like really, feels like it's picked up a dozen HP or better.

And in other news, got a new job. An extra half a paycheck means this episode is a little easier to stomach. :)
 

losh1971

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What brand DFI did you get and where did you buy it from?
 

Schtoo

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It has AFI on the box, which I don't think is either here nor there. What I paid for was "get it today" which should have been yesterday but work got in the way and "if it dies, it's got a warranty that works". Got the mechanic next door to work to get it for me, and cost more than I could have got it elsewhere, but it's in, it works and I needed it running today, not next week. Cost me $220, I think it came from JAS.

Also, he doesn't gouge on prices for stuff like this. We give him killer deals on stuff we sell (because he's next door) and he reciprocates.

Planned to get it out of Cooldrive, but that would have meant a 1 hour round trip to go get it, and would have been $50 cheaper. But warranty, maybe?
 

losh1971

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Might be ok. I know everything from Burson and Repco is just Chinese junk Delphi, sounds like yours might be decent. I want to buy a US made one but they are about $285, with freight but this is a genuine one that my mate can get me. Stealer quoted me around $400 for the same part.
 

Schtoo

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Well, the AFI is a sticker over something else, which happened to be a Bosch sticker, only country on the sticker is Germany.

I'm jaded enough to think that maybe it's not actually made in Germany and made elsewhere, but so long as it works (it does) and it doesn't crap out in the next few months, it should be ok long term.

Aaaand, looks pretty much identical to the OEM module I removed, so there's that.

Plus, the mechanic used to be a Holden mechanic, high-ish on the food chain and can pull things out of thin air seemingly. I have some faith that if he says this one is a good one, it probably is. The speed, cost and quality of the stupid heater bits he got convinced me he's switched on pretty well for this stuff.
 
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