My Z was sputtering all about and misfiring bad last night so I took it to the dealer (I know, dumb move) and they call me this morning and tell me my plug wires caused my coil packs to get corroded real bad and they need to be replaced.

They want to charge me $1200 for replacing the coil packs, and plug wires. I have Taylor Pro Wires on the car with NGK TR55 plugs and did the swap myself so I could do it again with some new NGKs and MSD wires without a problem. The only problem is I don't know how hard it is to install new coil packs myself and am wondering if this is difficult? I have removed both driver and passenger sides many times from the car but how hard is it to individually replace the packs?

Does this even seem like a valid claim on the dealer's part? I have never heard of coil packs getting corroded. If they are corroded it just seems like they can't be that hard to clean.
What do y'all suggest?

Thanks.

 

Sounds like a bunch of crap.
1) How do wires "corrode" a coil pack?
2) I seriously doubt all 8 coil packs are faulty
3) How does one come up with $1200 to replace them?!

Coil packs can be installed in under 5 minutes. No idea how much they cost though.. I'm sure its not cheap, but its certainly not $1200.

 

They came up with the $1200 by $60.00 a coil pack for a total of $480.00 plus $128.00 for new wires plus (this is the best part) 5.5 hours of labor. I could swap out the clutch in 5.5 hours of labor. I am gonna just take it home and start with new wires and see how she rides.

 

The coil packs just bolt on to the rail. You could do it yourself easily, especially if you've removed the rails before.

Sounds like yet another pleasant dealer ripoff experience. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" />

 

The coil itself is bedded in epoxy / whatever,
anything that's "corroded" (that they could
see by looking) would have to be just surface,
contacts etc. If you can find this alleged
corrosion, then just clean it off, check the
plug wires (maybe reinstall the OEM ones),
and see what's what.

The high tension part of the path isn't going
to care about any corrosion film, it will
run right through any oxide that isn't on the
order of your plug gap in thickness. The low
voltage side might care, but how that would
be affected by the plug wires, I couldn't
even guess (other than, bullshit).

If you have a timing light, then you could
try using it on each of the plug wires and
see if any one of them fails to trigger it.
That would pin down a bad spark path. Then
you have to figure if it's the plug, wire,
coil or driver.

You could also do something like the injector
balance test, except unhook one plug wire at
a time, with the IAC off, and see which one(s)
drop the idle the least. Those are the bad ones.

 

GM Part# 12558948 (ignition coil) -

GM List - $59.72
GM Wholesale - $41.80
GM Parts Direct - $29.86

http://www.gmpartsdirect.com/

 

GM Spark Plug Wire Set part# 88892763 -

GM List - $146.29
GM Wholesale - $102.40
GM Parts Direct - $73.14

MAN, this place has got excellent prices!!! How'd they do that? I mean, these are actual GM parts, right?

 

Sounds like a ripoff to me!!!!!!

 

I had a plug wire give me a misfire and it had rusted inside where it snaps into the coil.They can get rusty and cause you problems.GM replaced the wire and cleaned up the coil terminal.I put some extra dylectric (sp) grease on the ends of each wire to coil contact.
Andy

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by antsam17:
<strong>My Z was sputtering all about and misfiring bad last night so I took it to the dealer (I know, dumb move) and they call me this morning and tell me my plug wires caused my coil packs to get corroded real bad and they need to be replaced.

They want to charge me $1200 for replacing the coil packs, and plug wires. I have Taylor Pro Wires on the car with NGK TR55 plugs and did the swap myself so I could do it again with some new NGKs and MSD wires without a problem. The only problem is I don't know how hard it is to install new coil packs myself and am wondering if this is difficult? I have removed both driver and passenger sides many times from the car but how hard is it to individually replace the packs?

Does this even seem like a valid claim on the dealer's part? I have never heard of coil packs getting corroded. If they are corroded it just seems like they can't be that hard to clean.
What do y'all suggest?

Thanks.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This whole thing (especially the 5.5hr labour part) sounds like a rip-off to me.

Like others have suggested, try cleaning the coil terminals & wires (using fine sandpaper & contact cleaner from Radio Shack). If that doesn't work, I'd replace the wires.

I'd suggest that when the problem is fixed, go back to the dealership, ask to talk to the service manager and chew his *** out in front of as many customers as possible. Call GM and enter a complaint about the dealer. Make sure everyone you know hears about how they tried to rip you off.

Remember, don't get mad, get even <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" /> .

 

Ouch!!!Sorry, to say, but it does sound like a rip-off to me as well... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Mad]" src="gr_images/icons/mad.gif" />

 

5.5 hours of labor for wires? That is not just a rip-off, that almost sounds like fraud! I would contact a Better Business Bureau-type org in your area and see how much noise you can make.

 

yup. they trying to humpya. <img border="0" alt="[bullshit]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_bs.gif" />
just outta curiosity, did they give you a reach-around? prolly not.

 

Thanks for all the replies, I really appreciate your responses. I talked with Angie at Thunderracing because that is where I bought my Taylor Pro Wires and she basically told me to do the same thing as you all suggested. This is the best part, I picked the car up on thursday night, had to pay $100.00 for their time to diagnose the problem, and the car runs fine. I bought some new plugs/wires from TR to be safe because I am betting that is the problem and should replace them now anyway. I was away all weekend and tommorrow night I will know what the problem was. I am willing to bet that it was a loose plug wire and that is it. I am not happy with the dealership I took my car to and will take the problem up with the dealership once I remove the packs and all plugs and wires and take pictures of everything to show them that they were trying to rip me off.