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Why individual ignition coils?

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by Stevewoods, Mar 8, 2016.

  1. Stevewoods

    Stevewoods Senior Member

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    Needed to replace a coil today. Got me to thinking, why did car makers go to individual coils. There must be a good reason.

    I grew up with points, condensers, carburetors and a single coil. I suppose I could Google this, but, heck, I already have this written. ;)
     
    #1 Stevewoods, Mar 8, 2016
  2. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    It eliminates the need for heavy gauge spark plug wires. This means the high voltage charge has less to travel to reach the plug. That gives a slight improvement in efficient, and also allows better control in timing the the spark.
     
    #2 Trollbait, Mar 8, 2016
  3. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Distributors needed a lot of maintenance, were failure prone, and not cheap to replace either. Plus with individual coils and computer control, better combustion, mpg?
     
    #3 Mendel Leisk, Mar 8, 2016
  4. WilDavis

    WilDavis Senior Member

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    Reliablility? (No single-point-of-failure), Less wiring? Similar to the reasons why magnetos were often used in aero-engines, and racing-cars… ;)
     
    #4 WilDavis, Mar 8, 2016
  5. Stevewoods

    Stevewoods Senior Member

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    Hmmm, I kind of get where you guys are going with the reasoning. My old school brain is still trying to sort it all out though.

    In the meantime, I sort of enjoyed this YouTube vid of a woman replacing all the coils on her '03 Camry (BTW, it was my '03 Camry I was working on, not my Prius). This is a total time-waster of a vid, but it does have a bit of "huh," to it, so don't blame me if you watch it then say WTH.

    BTW, not exactly sure I would recommend putting the screwdriver and all other tools atop the battery, as it LOOKS like is being done here.

     
    #5 Stevewoods, Mar 8, 2016
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2016
  6. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    Remember manual choke? Had it on our 81 civic, no problems. Then came our 83 accord with "auto" choke: there was a defective vacuum check valve, so it would "automatically" stall the car, at the same intersection, every dang morning, till I figured it out.
     
    #6 Mendel Leisk, Mar 8, 2016
  7. Stevewoods

    Stevewoods Senior Member

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    The '62 Ford Falcon Straight Six I inherited when my dad died had the manual choke. I loved it. When my fingertip fit between the bottom of the choke knob and the dash, it was perfectly adjusted for normal driving....rare occasions, had to make other "fine tunings." :D
     
    #7 Stevewoods, Mar 8, 2016
    Mendel Leisk likes this.
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