no whirring, turns over, no spark = ignition coil dead

[silverbullet]

Sudden death like this is something that I wasted a lot of time on with the Mrs' Sharan a while back. Dropped the littlest at school, walked across road, jumped back in and crankcrankcrank...nothing.
I found out it was the coil (in the end after a few red herrings) and it turns out that they do fail without warning. I then had to go back to mechanic's school after that fiasco

[Aidan]

sorry if I had read the thread earlier I would have said coil check as soon as no spark symptom revealed, the live pin 15 from ignition switch to coil was probably lost to the ecu and thus no start up normality while the coil was dead, the idle system will need pin 15 too

[Epiphone]

great thanks, Aidan, "mystery" solved.

I didnt find out about the "no spark" until AA guy mentioned it anyway, Monday evening. Guess that he tested that there was voltage going to the Coil, then found nothing going into the distributor, but he thought ECU and didnt think of simply the coil??

Got towed straight to the garage anyway that evening and back in my loving arms 19:00 the next day.

[Epiphone]

Unfortunately still having some issues. The bus is stored in an underground garage and started fine this morning.

Then it was parked outside for the whole day. Then came to drive away but wouldn't start. Wouldn't even turn over. But the idle stabiliser was whirring and all electrics and headlights were working fine.

Then after a couple minutes it started. This has happened 3 times in a few months. Always when parked outside it's not happened in the garage.

Is the cold effecting something?

[BOXY]

If the engine isn't turning over and the battery is fine then its either a starter motor / solenoid problem or a faulty ignition switch. The starter motor solenoid or the wiring to it is the most likely candidate. When you turn your ignition key the solenoid should energise with a "clunk" and start the starter motor spinning, the pinion engages the flywheel and this turns you engine over, when the engine fires its speed disengages the pinion and off you go. If the solenoid is stiff or sticky then your engine won't turn over. Banging it with a hammer sometimes frees it enough to get started but obviously isn't a permanent fix. It might be the wiring and terminals on the starter & solenoid need cleaning up as any increased resistance to the electrical current could be enough to stop the solenoid or starter working properly.

[kevtherev]

yep boxy has it in one
Sticky solenoid syndrome is quite a common issue
as is poor connections and earth to the starter motor
and a broken power braid from the solenoid to the starter

[Epiphone]

so to book end the thread on my side, inbetween Ive had the engine out of the bus and put together again, with same Starter Motor, has been parked outside for a whole weekend on 2 occasions and havent had the problem since.

But seeing as its still the same Starter Motor, this could come back at any time, will wait and see...