Time to replace coils packs on Thor

[Hammer H]

Hi Guys

for those that have done this how much time should i allow to get this job (replacing coil packs) done.

Cheers Paul

[bee utey]

A couple of hours or less, if your wrists are flexible and your fingers are sensitive. Firstly undo the 6mm stud holding the heater pipe by undoing it with 2 nuts jammed together. Catch the spacer that's between the pipes and the plenum. Undo everything around the throttle body.

The removal of the plenum top isn't that hard but first you need to undo and remove the two top bolts from the coil pack bracket. A 7mm 1/4" drive socket, 6" extension and ratchet will allow you to reach and remove these. Next move, which is a little more difficult, is to loosen the two lower coil pack bracket bolts by only 3 turns. Again with the 7mm socket but you need two extensions to reach them as they are low down. Once they are loosened the last bolt holding the plenum top can be undone. Don't forget the one low down on the front of the plenum centre line either. Once the plenum top is off you can remove the two 7mm headed bolts and do the coil pack swap.

Reinstallation requires you to put these two lower bolts in but leave them loose enough so that the bracket can be swung forwards and backwards. Make absolutely sure the connector plugs are securely clicked onto the coil packs, as they will otherwise jump off. Once the plenum is reinstalled fit the two upper 7mm headed bolts and tighten all four.

Good luck! :)

[Hammer H]

Thanks bee utey
That answers all my questions and then some

Paul

[PeterH]

Hi Paul, what symptoms are you having to make you replace the coil packs?
Cheers, Pete.

[Hammer H]

Hi Paul, what symptoms are you having to make you replace the coil packs?
Cheers, Pete.

Hi Peter,

It is missing on more than one cylinder, only started recently. It's not my daily driver but heading on a trip with it soon.

I'm tackling the coil packs first as I've had spares sitting around for a while and always planned to fit them.
Also replaced plugs and leads a few thousand ks ago.

Hopefully the coil packs fix it.

Paul

[Keithy P38]

I did mine in September for the exact same reason. ***** of a job when LPG gear is attached everywhere on the manifold too, so I outsourced the job. Fixed my "cylinders missing" issue straight up!

Cheers
Keithy

[Hammer H]

Keithy I hope it fixes mine the same.

Just need a cooler day now to tackle it.

Paul

[Pedro_The_Swift]

I was told dropping an engine mount first made things easier;)
Also should be which a " plug leads to which coil pack" pic in here somewhere,,,, just in case ��

[Hammer H]

I love shortcuts Pedro so I will definitely look into that.

[bee utey]

If engine mount removal was a 5 minute job I'd have suggested it. Pulling off the manifold top is far quicker. I reckon that I could do a coil pack swap in under an hour now that I've done a few, my way. It's even faster if you've already bypassed the throttle body heater. :)

[Hammer H]

Ok job done in 3 hours and fixed the missing/rough idle.

Thought I'd give it a go without removing the manifold or engine mount and it wasn't too bad.

The hardest bolt to remove was the drivers side bottom and this is also the first bolt to remove, to remove this bolt I layed over the motor. Once the bolt was removed the rest is carried out over the drivers side guard.

[Hammer H]

Tools used

[Hammer H]

The only other part I removed was the plug lead clamp which allows a lot better access to reach behind

[Hammer H]

There was some corrosion on the bolts where they poke out the bracket so I sprayed some crc behind the bracket onto the bolt ends to help remove them easier.

[Hammer H]

Then removed the two top bolts of the drivers side coil pack and removed the coil pack. This allows access to the lower bolt of the passengers side coil pack, then remove the top bolts and it's off.

Pic with drivers side coil pack already removed.

[Hammer H]

This is what they looked like.

[Hammer H]

Wire brushed the bolt ends, and cleaned up the spark plug lead ends as they were 2 years old.

Assembly is the reverse of removal.

It took three hours and I was in no rush, I'm sure if I was to do it again I could do it in 1.5 hours.

Making sure the plug leads were pressed on properly took some time, one particularly gave me a hard time.

She's now idling a lot smoother.

Paul

[PeterH]

Glad you got it sorted, nice work!
Was it missing all the time, or just under load?
I'm trying to work out what is causing mine to hesitate under load between 60-80 kmh. I changed the MAF a while back which did help a bit, but my coil packs would be the original ones 15 years old now, these things don't last forever.

[Hammer H]

Hi Peter,

I noticed it missing on my last trip in October, which sounded like maybe just one cylinder and it was a little rough at idle. I didn't notice anything while driving.

I only took it for a few short drives since then, and the miss became very noticeable at idle and very rough almost as if it might stall. I'd say at least 2 cylinders were missing, with slight acceleration it improved but it was noticeable while driving but I didn't go above 60ks around town.

Paul

[Keithy P38]

Thanks for the details and all the pics mate! Great job!

Cheers
Keithy

[Hammer H]

Thinking now I should have replaced the coil packs 10,000 kms ago. It's at 189,000 kms now and replacing the coil packs have made a noticeable improvement, more power and smoother.