correct type of coil?

hamburg

Hi all , I have an 81 scirocco mk2, that unfortunately died and left me stranded at the roadside last Friday.I got it towed home and eventually found the coil was shorted out with the help of a multimeter. I ordered a new one Saturday in my local motor factor and collected it today. It is a valeo part and before I fitted it I went on to their website just to double check it was the right part. And according to their website information, this coil is for contact breaker points cars only.my car has electronic ignition fitted and they have a different coil part number listed for that. So I will return this one and get them to order the correct one, but I was just curious about the difference . does electronic ignition require more/less juice than points to work properly? Cos the 2 coils look identical on their webpage. The dud coil that came off the car has printed on it, use only in electronic ignition systems. I just thought a coil was a coil. Anyone know??

type85

The primary resistance of a point ignition coil is 3 ohms, and for an electronic ignition coil its less than 1 ohm. so should be about 0.5 or 0.8 ohms. Measure across + and - (15 and 1).

Testacalda

Yep the only real difference is the primary resistance , normally 1 ohm for electronic ignition and about 3 ohms for points and condenser ignition

The other thing to be careful of is to get a 12v coil, as some are 9 -10 volt coils used in ballast reiststed ignition systems, but again this only applies to points and condenser ignition system

hamburg

type85 wrote: »

The primary resistance of a point ignition coil is 3 ohms, and for an electronic ignition coil its less than 1 ohm. so should be about 0.5 or 0.8 ohms. Measure across + and - (15 and 1).

I got 1.2 ohms on the primary circuit and open loop on the secondary circuit. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

hamburg

Testacalda wrote: »

Yep the only real difference is the primary resistance , normally 1 ohm for electronic ignition and about 3 ohms for points and condenser ignition

The other thing to be careful of is to get a 12v coil, as some are 9 -10 volt coils used in ballast reiststed ignition systems, but again this only applies to points and condenser ignition system

According to the haynes book of lies, the specs for primary circuit are 1.7 to 2.1 ohms for contact breakers systems and 0.52 to 0.76 ohms for transistorised ignition systems. I got 1.2 ohms on my one. Many thanks for the information.ðŸ‘

hamburg

I finally got the correct electronic coil fitted and the bit<h fired into life and is now running better than ever.many thanks for all the advice from members on here.