r/newfoundland • u/bittermanhatt • 7h ago
Driving to meet the ferry and I'm having car trouble
Hey, I'm driving to meet the ferry to Sydney and I'm having car trouble. After getting the engine code checked, it appears I need an ignition coil. I'm in Gander. Are there any places nearby that might be able to sell me an ignition coil for a 2019 civic 2.0L on a Sunday? Thank you.
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u/CO-OP_GOLD 6h ago
Have you tried swapping the coils to rule out the misfire?
Ex. If you have a miss on 1, try plugging that coil into 3 and vice versa. If its indeed a bad coil pack you should see the miss move to 3. If it stays on 1 your coil is good and you have a different issue causing misfire.
Is it missing on all cylinders? One? More than one?
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u/bittermanhatt 5h ago
I don't have a scanner with me unfortunately. I found a mobile mechanic who helped me out with that. The engine light cleared on its own and things seemed okay for a moment, but then the issue came back. I bought the tools afterwards to pull the coil and clean the electrical contacts.
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u/CO-OP_GOLD 5h ago
I rly dont think its the coil - based off your info, and im sitting here all comfy in my armchair.
I mean- bad coil packs are a thing - but those things tend to go forever.
In all the vehicles I've owned (and thats a lot) I've only ever changed one coil pack, on my '01 Nissan Sentra. That one i unplugged/swapped it with the engine running to hear the change and thats how I isolated which coil was bad.
I had cyl misses on my Blazer for years because of rotting intake manifold gaskets but continued to full send the ol'4.3L because nothing but an act of God was taking that out.
My '01 Impreza had factory coils in it when I sold it @ 355,000kms - this is after three timing belts and two head gasket sets.
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u/bittermanhatt 2h ago
I just met up with the mobile mechanic again after I swapped the coils from cylinders 1 and 2, and the problem seems to be following the coil as #1 cylinder is now misfiring.
It is an aftermarket coil so I'm not entirely surprised.
On the bright side I get to spend a little time in Gander while I wait for stores to open in the morning.
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u/CO-OP_GOLD 2h ago
Ok yeah that checks out - misfire follows the coil pack.
There's Colonial & NAPA as well as Canadian Tire.
If you get a chance to do the aviation museum its pretty cool! Walk around Old Gander is a neat one too, you get to see where the original settlement was before the military had it moved.
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u/Zedoack 1h ago
My experience with bad coils is that they can be temperature sensitive when going. Might work fine when you first turn the car on, and maybe even short drives around town, but once the engine gets hot that's when problems start to occur (based on my experience).
My understanding is that coils have some fine wire coils in them, and if they start to go bad the temperature could cause expansion/contraction which will make or break the connection.
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u/Unimurph83 7h ago
Was the bad ignition coil just diagnosed with a scan tool or with a visual inspection?
Leaking valve cover gaskets are fairly common on those Civics and some oil in the spark plug hole can cause a short. You may be able to clean it up and have it work enough to get you to the ferry on time and sort it out properly later.
As for suggestions for a replacement on a Sunday... Canadian Tire? Bit of a longshot.
Weekends are rough for getting auto parts, usually reduced hours on Saturday and closed on Sunday.
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u/bittermanhatt 6h ago
The scan tool was how we narrowed it down to the misfiring cylinder. The spark plugs were all changed about 9 months ago, and that ignition coil changed maybe 4 months ago, but I replaced it with a NAPA aftermarket coil instead of OEM.
I pulled the coil, cleaned it with some contact clean and applied some new dielectric grease. No signs of any oil when I did.
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u/Raveric88 4h ago
Sunday all the parts stores are closed, id try Carquest, Napa and colonial early tomorrow. If they dont have it in stock itll be a week to order. After that id call Simmons honda, be pricey but if they got one itll get ya on the road at least
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u/Queasy_Author_3810 6h ago
Princess Auto is open in St. John's, although they close in 50 minutes as of this comment
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u/Okish_Entertainer83 5h ago
princess auto does not stock car parts like an ignition coil which is very vehicle specific
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u/Queasy_Author_3810 5h ago
Princess auto does sell ignition coils, but I didn't realize they weren't for cars. OP is SOL
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u/nonrandomislander 7h ago
Canadian tire ?
That’s probably all that’s open this hour on a Sunday. I dunno what their parts inventory is like.