Engine misfires

[motty]

Hi guys,

Was wandering if you guys could help me out.

For a while now our 2.0 Gti misfires when cold and the emissions light flickers on. It sounds very rough and misfires when driving. When you restart the engine again after a journey when it has warmed up it seems OK.

It went into a non-VAG garage and they hooked it up to a computer. They said it was either the plugs, leads or coil pack. I opted to go for a change of leads.

It then started to happen again and I booked it into a VW garage in Guildford. They said it was a loose lead which they reconnected whilst they also did a service on the car. They cleared the fault and all was OK, until we came back from a week away and I started it up and low and behold it was doing it again.

I have re-booked it into Guildford for them to take another look at it but typically it's not done it for a couple of days and the light isn't on.

Any ideas? Anyone had this?

Speaking to some work colleagues they seem to think it may be related to the coil packs?

Thanks for reading and any thoughts will be much appreciated.

Alan.

[euroslap]

Do these engines have an individual coil pack per plug like the 20vt engines? If so they commonly burn out developing a serious misfire and considerable loss of power.

[Primo1000]

The coil pack has all four plug connectors on it for the 2.0.

Sounds like you'll need a new pack.

[euroslap]

For a definate check, if you have an old spark plug lying around take each plug lead off in turn (at the plug end) click the old plug in and rest each one in turn against the side of the cylinder head with the electrode towards the head (don't hold it or you'll get a good shock) and get somebody else to turn the engine over (a couple of revolutions should suffice). You should get a good spark off each cylinder if the coil pack is good, if one or more aren't sparking you're coil pack is gone. ;)