The internal combustion process must take place before an engine can even be started. This means that the mixture of air and fuel must be ignited in the chamber. There are three main parts responsible for creating this ignition: the ignition coil, spark plug, and battery. If you have more than one spark plug in your vehicle, then you have an individual ignition coil linked to each one.
Basically, the ignition coil is connected to the spark plug. The job of the ignition coil is to cause the spark plug to generate an electric spark which is powerful enough to ignite the air and fuel mixture. The ignition coil does this by converting the 12-volt car battery power into over 12,000 volts of power for the spark plug. Once the spark plug receives this electricity, it can ignite the mixture in the chamber. The engine will then start up if there are no problems with any other components of the vehicle.
Bad Ignition Coil Symptoms
Of course, there is no such thing as a perfect auto part. Ignition coils will eventually wear themselves out from being used every time you start your engine. If your ignition coils become too damaged or worn out, then you will experience a lot of strange symptoms. These are symptoms that you cannot live with for very long because they’ll make your driving less safe. It is important for you to recognize these symptoms before it is too late.
Below are the top 7 symptoms of a bad ignition coil in your car.
1. Engine Misfiring
The most noticeable symptom will be engine misfiring. As your ignition coils start to go bad, you will hear a lot of sputtering sounds as you attempt to start your vehicle. This is the result of an engine misfire, which is when the air and fuel mixture doesn’t receive a powerful enough ignition spark. This is due to one or more bad ignition coils.
2. Bad Fuel Economy
Bad ignition coils drag down the fuel economy of your vehicle because the engine is forced to work harder after a weak ignition. This will cause it to consume an abundance of fuel, which means you’ll need to regularly stop at the gas station more often than usual. It is a better investment to have your ignition coils replaced instead of paying for so much gas.
3. Stalling
If you’re able to drive around with bad ignition coils in your vehicle, don’t be surprised if your engine stalls at some point. Bad ignition coils won’t send strong consistent sparks to the combustion chamber. If a spark is too weak, then the engine won’t be able to generate enough power to keep running. This will cause your vehicle to shut off entirely in some cases.
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4. Check Engine Light
Before and during your experiences with these other symptoms, you will see your Check Engine light activate on the dashboard. The Check Engine light could mean any number of problems with your engine. But if you’ve experienced one or more of the previously listed symptoms in addition to this one, then you likely have bad ignition coils. These need to be replaced for the warning light to shut off.
5. Jerking
Inconsistent sparks in the combustion chamber will result in jerking. As you step on the accelerator pedal to go faster, the jerking will increase because more demand is placed on the engine. The bad ignition coils make it difficult for the engine to satisfy those demands. This causes the jerkiness motions as the acceleration comes and goes from the inconsistency of the sparks.
6. Engine Blowing Black Smokes
We can find out this problem by the black smoke from our car exhaust pipe and the smell of gasoline when we run our car engine. This problem occur when the unused fuel in the combustion cylinders leaking and goes to the exhaust pipe. Even though our car seem could run normally with this problem, we shouldn’t ignore it. As one of the earliest symptoms of bad ignition coil, it could be also the symptom of our car engine problem. Checking the ignition coil or just bring it to the warehouse is recommended to avoid further harm to the engine especially the exhaust system.
7. Engine Hard to Start
As we know the most important task of the ignition coil is to igniting our car engine. If the ignition coil turn bad, this function will be affected. The engine just doesn’t have the electrical power enough to combustion the fuel and the air to start the engine. Sometime the engine could work after we turn our key on several times, but I suggest you to make ‘your ignition coil checked as soon as possible. I’m sure we don’t want get trouble with our car in the middle of traffic jam or in the middle of nowhere as well.
