Lifetime of PR coils, any opinions/experiences?

[Asbjorn]

I have 80.000km or so on mine. Wondering when these wear out and need replacing.

I get the occasional 2E1C (firing cylinder 5) or similar for other cylinders. Always only one cylinder and always stops after a few seconds. Very random and problem seems to disappear for months after we disconnect and reconnect the coil complaining.

If these a caused by bad connections I wonder how often Im getting less than optimal ignition without even knowing.

 

[martymil]

Switch coils between cylinders and see if it moves, highly unlikely its the coil.

Its either your adapter wiring between the original harness and the coil or something else.

I have a persistent cyl 5 timing drops since the car was brand new on occasion.

 

[ShocknAwe]

How old are your leads/wires, and what version lead are you using?

 

[Asbjorn]

How old are your leads/wires, and what version lead are you using?

Same age as the coils. +2 years old. However the spark plug wires are from Feb 2020. I mean these:

BMW N54 REPLACEMENT SPARK PLUG WIRES

The Precision Raceworks BMW N54 FACTORY LOCATION REPLACEMENT SPARK PLUG WIRES are the same wires that come with our famous BMW N54 HIGH PERFORMANCE IGNITION KIT featuring low resistance high performance spark plug wires. These wires are 100% custom...

www.precisionraceworks.com

 

[ShocknAwe]

Same age as the coils. +2 years old. However the spark plug wires are from Feb 2020. I mean these:

BMW N54 REPLACEMENT SPARK PLUG WIRES

The Precision Raceworks BMW N54 FACTORY LOCATION REPLACEMENT SPARK PLUG WIRES are the same wires that come with our famous BMW N54 HIGH PERFORMANCE IGNITION KIT featuring low resistance high performance spark plug wires. These wires are 100% custom...

www.precisionraceworks.com

Ought not to be it then.

 

[Asbjorn]

But back to the original topic - any opinions on the lifetime on these? Or we just wait until misfires start to happen and then replace.

 

[V8bait]

But back to the original topic - any opinions on the lifetime on these? Or we just wait until misfires start to happen and then replace.

I helped dev them and have had my set since circa 2016 (had one beta set before I gave to a friend after a year of abuse that is still running them), mine were installed around 40k and one motor ago on my setup. My leads are the newer versions and I did have a failure on one coil recently.

To be fair I did track them with a module designed to overvolt them to 19v (similar to kenne bell boost a spark) while simultaneously running them at 6ms dwell for around 10k of those miles.

I also baked on a chemical resistant paint designed for engine parts because I wanted them black not the old blue.

Also these were a set of “faulty” coils returned by a certain Vu in 2016 that had been “damaged” by a single turbo.

5/6 OG painted fugly blues and 1/6 sexy black putting down fine again.

tl;dr swap coil body see if misfire moves. If it does, coil. If it doesn’t, lead/plug/injector/engine or along those lines.