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My 2000 ford galaxy 2.3 Zetec has suddenly stopped firing on cylinders 1 and 3 without warning, fuel is OK but no spark, cylinders 2 and 4 are fine which means both coil packs have gone down at the same time which to me seems strange, so my question is... What else can stop cylinders 1 and 3 from sparking considering 2 and 4 are running fine. Engine does run but very lumpy. Please help as I use my car everyday for school runs and work and need it back on the road ASAP. Any advice is welcome.
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Could be both coils failing together but unlikely.It is possible you have a wiring fault or a problem with the engine control unit.Have you tried swapping over the coils to eliminate them.?
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Are you certain that cylinders 1 & 3 going down together? DIS coils on a four cylinder engine will fire 1 & 4 and 2 & 3 together. If both of your coils had failed then the engine would most likely not run at all. If you are mistaken about which cylinders aren't firing then it could be that one coil is not switching. Locate the centre wire in the coil plug which is a common 12v supply to both coils. The two outer wires are the returns to the ECU for each coil. Connect a voltmeter from the centre wire to each of the outer wires in turn. Start the engine and observe the voltage. The coils should switch from 12v to 0v, but it will happen too quickly for a voltmeter to react to, so your meter will settle for somewhere inbetween. Check that the voltage is the same on each coil. If it's clearly different then check the wiring back to the ECU for continuity, or the ECU itself could be the problem.
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I think you will find this is an older system with each coil being double ended.One output direct to a spark plug and a lead out to the second.There is only a 2 pin connector on these ,with one wire ignition supply,the other return switch to ecu.
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the older ignition system described is the correct system. Coil pack 2 lies on top of cylinder 4 with an ht lead to cylinder 1 and coil pack 1 lies on top of cylinder 2 with an ht lead to cylinder 3, it was running fine driving down to work but as I pulled on to the car park it suddenly started to run lumpy, cylinder 1 does spark occasionally. I wished it was the older breaker point system, much more reliable and easy to fix.
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Both coils are failing on ht lead side of the coil so if I swapped them I still wouldn't know because the stem on both are fine, just lead side is faulty.
Edited by dashepster on 02/11/2014 at 22:21
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The way I see it ,if it is the lead side faulty,then either both coils are in trouble,or both leads,or 2 spark plugs.I can't see it being a fault with the wiring or ecu.
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Just an update, I have already replaced spark plugs and out of curiosity I tried the old plugs and they all work fine with a good strong blue white spark and not a weak orange spark of which I was expecting. Thanks guys for the help, I've ordered 2 new coil packs even though I think it is wierd for both to go at the same time and both be cable side of the coils. So I'm still open to suggestions.
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Just to let you know it was just the coil packs, they were delivered this morning, fitted them and now it's running fine, thanks for the help.
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