Club 80-90 Forums

Hello. I thought that I would easily find my answer on web or in Haynes, got some helpful advice but have not got all the inf I need to put my mind at rest. My T25, 1988, water-cooled 1.9L, DG engine had a spate of Sudden Death Syndrome last June.It would just stop dead after perhaps 5, perhaps 105 miles and by the time I had gathered tools & removed engine cover to hunt for problem it would start again & run for a few more miles.I decided that a fuel pump could cause this and replaced pump & had carb overhauled. It does not travel far most weeks so it was a few weeks before I discovered that the problem was still with me and decided to shift my attention to the ignition and replaced cap & leads, hall sender, ign. module & coil. I kept all the old bits marked them as somewhere having an intermittent fault and have not had a problem since. Last week, I had just driven in to long stay airport car park when camper died, I pushed it into space and marvelled at it. Even when it lets you down it does it in the most considerate of ways. Half a mile earlier and it would have been a whole different matter and I would probably have missed my flight. When we returned a few days later camper still showed no signs of life so the nice man brough us home on his truck. Had a poke about and spark present but orange so put my old coil back on & started first time. Re-connected existing coil, no life. Swapped coil over & is now running happily on old coil.
I now appreciate that it was possibly my old coil that was the previous problem, now I think about it it seemed worse on a hot day, and had I felt the coil when the camper died I may well have noticed that it was very hot.
I will now buy another coil & put my old one back in my emergency store but is this a coil that normally runs at 8 or 9 volts and has 12 volts only for starting?
If so how do I check the voltage received by the coil, with points it would be easy but with electronic ignition I am not certain how to test.
The original coil is a Bosch & the (now dead) replacement a Topran 103-240-755.
I expect a Bosch replacement would be favourite for long life but do not want to kill it with too high a voltage.
Thanks

Daveydub wrote: is this a coil that normally runs at 8 or 9 volts and has 12 volts only for starting?

I just popped in to say, "no, the T25 does not use a lower voltage "ballast" type coil that runs off a lower voltage during normal running".
Yours sounds like a fairly clear cut case of a failed coil. Replace it and all will likely be well

Thanks ghost. JustKampers site is down at the mo but from the book J10539 looks like mine but don't think it is a bosch so will have a look around when site is back. Hopefully then will be good for another 25 years

Many on here never buy mechanical or electrical bits from JK. Often there are problems of one sort or another. Wrong item sent, Doesn't fit, Faulty from new, Failed 6 months down the line etc etc. Mind you, if you buy a coil and it has a proper brand name and part number on it, I suppose you can't go far wrong. You can always trust parts from Brickwerks because he fits what he sells in his workshops.

ghost123uk wrote:Many on here never buy mechanical or electrical bits from JK. Often there are problems of one sort or another. Wrong item sent, Doesn't fit, Faulty from new, Failed 6 months down the line etc etc. Mind you, if you buy a coil and it has a proper brand name and part number on it, I suppose you can't go far wrong. You can always trust parts from Brickwerks because he fits what he sells in his workshops.

From experience that's spot on

I think that my coil came from GSF and is made by Topran. I was hoping to buy a Bosch & JK do not seem to keep a Bosch one so I had a look elsewhere & found that Brickwerks keep 2 alternatives.
The later coils as fitted to everything else, these could either have a green label on them or a grey label. ETKA [VW's Electronic Parts Catalogue] is a little confusing regarding what vehicles have the green and which have the grey label, in fact it is contradictory, we feel the best way to get the right coil is just to fit what was on there originally.
My previous coil had remnants of a green label on it and so I have to assume that this was the correct coil and not the wrong one fitted unless there is a way to be certain.
I did find in my box of bits a new, still sealed Bosch 0221119025 with a blue 12 volt label. Resistances on this are 3.3 ohms & 9.39 kohms so I will not be using this so if anybody needs one....
Does anyone understand why the green & grey are not interchangeable as they appear to use the same ignition module & hall sender?
That is just to satisfy my curiosity and aid my understanding so unless anyone can advise me otherwise I will be getting a Bosch green label and putting my original in the van as back-up rather than in my shed where it served no useful purpose the other day.

Daveydub wrote: Does anyone understand why the green & grey are not interchangeable as they appear to use the same ignition module & hall sender?

I have raised this very subject on here a couple of times over the years as I too noticed that all the "bits" associated with the two types of coils are the same
I don't recall getting a definitive answer.

I would proceed with your plan and just fit a green one.

ghost123uk wrote: I don't recall getting a definitive answer.

Old timers' disease perhaps?

CovKid's wiki article, prompted by bigherb's information.

Oh yes, I remember that thread now

Thanks a million to CJH & ghost. I will be able to sleep tonight now. I will order a green one later.
Cheers
Dave

And also to CovKid for the wiki