The other day my car started misfiring. I performed a cylinder drop test by disconnecting each ignition coil and determined the misfire was coming from cylinder 2. I then swapped coils to see if that was the issue and the misfire disappeared completely. I did go ahead and replace that ignition coil with a name brand coil ( not cheap generic from the jungle site!)
Upon further inspection I found that the insulation was missing on the wiring going into most of the coil connectors. This must be a common issue as a pack of 4 was only $10.
I spent about an hour replacing all 4 taking my time by doing one wire at a time. Then I took my time with cable management and rewrapping the harness and securing it properly to prevent any chafing or other damage.
A post mortem revealed no visible corrosion on any of the terminals but most of the connectors broke apart when I disassembled them as the plastic had become very brittle
Tools used:
- Seam ripper for cutting the wiring harness open
- Wire cutters
- Wire strippers
- Crimper
- Scissors
- Heat gun
- Metal license plate as a heat shield
Materials:
- 4 new connectors
- 12 red heat shrink butt connectors (possibly controversial)
- Cloth electrical tape
- Several zip ties to replace broken factory ties


When an engineer fixes a car.