Engine warning on Nissan Primera

DarraghR

My 2004 Nissan Primera has been giving me trouble on and off for a few months now. In the past week the issue became more obvious.
When I start up my car in the mornings or after work it is very shaky. This then intensifys when accelerating. After about 15 minutes or so the problem usually goes away until the next time I start it up. Today I got a warning message on my in car display which you can view below with other images.

http://postimg.org/image/opwy9idp1
http://postimg.org/image/nrl6kypqt
http://postimg.org/image/bn1bq8nh1

After talking to friends with experience one seems to thing that one of the coils may need to be replaced. Are there any checks that I could do to see what the issue is?

It is really bad timing as my driving test is in early January and I have to make trips outside the county over Christmas.

cletus

First job is to have the ecu scanned, see what codes it throws up. While your car is very polite (normally they just flash angry red lights at you), its also pretty vague.

First step is codes

DarraghR

Got a scan done and it said that there was a fault with coil 3. The mechanic swapped coil 1 with 3 and said pop back when the engine warning comes up again. He will give it another scan and see if the coil is faulty but it might be the injector. Think im looking at 80 euro for a new coil. Very nice guy he didnt charge me anything

DarraghR

The warning message came back up but disappeared the next day before I could get to the mechanic. Do I have to wait for it to pop back up before I get another diagnostics ?

Atlantic Dawn

DarraghR wrote: »

The warning message came back up but disappeared the next day before I could get to the mechanic. Do I have to wait for it to pop back up before I get another diagnostics ?

No it will be logged in historical faults when he connects his diagnostics.

DarraghR

Got a coil for 50 and fitted that. Changed the oil, spark plugs, oil filter and air filter. It ran fine for a couple of days then the symptoms came back. Is it possible that another coil is going. The car runs fine once its heated up. Awaiting the next warning sign ... very frustrating

Atlantic Dawn

DarraghR wrote: »

Got a coil for 50 and fitted that. Changed the oil, spark plugs, oil filter and air filter. It ran fine for a couple of days then the symptoms came back. Is it possible that another coil is going. The car runs fine once its heated up. Awaiting the next warning sign ... very frustrating

Yes very possible that another coil(s) is gone too. You have to consider they have a fixed lifespan and all should fail in or around the same time. It could be worth considering replacing the other 3 all in one job, with the law of averages the others will go soon too. Get the mechanic to see if it is another coil pack that the fault is indicating from.

thomas anderson.

You should really change all the time oils at the same time.

I was only doing 1 at a time on my Megane, ended up replacing all of them within 6 months

DarraghR

Still no warning message but will a diagnostics still pick up a faulty coil or do I have to wait for the warning message?

biko

Most likely the code will be stored in the car so you don't need light to be on.

DarraghR

I have read that you can test each coil with a ohm meter so might try get a loan of one. I dont really want to spend 150 euro on 3 more coils then find out its something else