problem

tachometer not working.

car runs fine to me, but no spark in trailing coil

when i unplugged the leading coil, you can hear the engine slow down a bit

but when i unplugged the trailing coil, nothing changed, and no spark


your help is greatly appreciated

 

"The following is for an S4"

There are two wires which are Black/Yellow plugged to the unit and it should have battery voltage to it with the key to "on."

You can remove the spark plug wire boot from the trailing coil and leave the part inside the boot very close to the bore/tube you removed it from and start the car and look for any sparks.

Make sure the coil/igniter unit is mounted to the bracket properly and that the bracket is grounded to the fender in a proper manner, done by having the bracket bolted to the fender.

When idling, pin 1X(Blue/Yellow wire) should have .8 volts, pin 1U(Brown/Yellow) should have 2.2 volts, and pin 1M(Blue/Red wire) should have less than 2 volts.

 

My question is why is there no spark on my trailing coil, but my motor is running fine? Also I am running haltech e6k
connection from the trailing coil to the tachometer is good, we checked that. So it's either the cluster or the trailing coil

 

The trailing spark does mostly "clean up" work to make the engine run more efficient. It's normal that it doesn't appear to be doing much when it's unplugged... Leading coil does most of the work.

Dead coils are pretty rare, but I've had one before so definitely check it or find a known working one to replace it with.

 

so, is ther going to be any kind of spark on the trailing or no spark at all?

tachometer runs off my trailing, so its either the tachometer that does work or the trailing that doesn't work.

would you go with
autzone $130 x2= $260 for 2 trailing coils
or
mazdatrix $180 x2= $360 for 2 trailing coils?

 

Did you verify if the condenser located beneath the trailing coil and related to the tach is connected properly?

 

i know that trailing coils dont do much, but NO spark at all? Is it suppose to have any spark at all?

 

i did not recognize any condenser?! what condenser?

just unbolted the whole trailing igniter with coils, and cleaned up all the grime to make sure its grounded properly.

 

S4 wiring diagram excerpt:

 

It's a haltech problem, not a coil or tach problem. Tell haltech to fix it.

Want to make sure the tachometer is functional? Easy. You go to the area of the trail coil assy and find the single bullet connector with a yellow/blue wire. You get a new piece of wire and bare both ends.

One end of the new wire into the bullet connector you just found.

You now go to the LEAD coil assy and find the single wire bullet connector near the lead assy. You put the other end of the new wire into that bullet connecto.

Before starting the engine., you disconnect any elect plugs to the TRAIL coil assy. Then you start the engine. Tach now works proving the haltech is the problem. Fix it by going back to the Mazda ECU and wiring. Done.

 

satch, mine has always hung free, should i bolt it to a ground( chassis, engine, ect. )?

 

Being a capacitor, it is there for protective purposes but many cars run fine w/o it. Since you have it, chances are better off if you reconnected it then to leave as is. Chassis is fine.

 

so satch, so do i have a sign of a bad trailing coil, if i disconnect the trailing coil plug, and nothing happens? No sign of spark, no sound changing from engine, etc.?

 

Did you do as HAILERS suggested? He is the board electrical guru, although he refuses to wear long lengthed garb and burn incense, "for reasons I do not know why." Seriously though, do the test he suggested and perhaps test the coil for ohms (range is .2 to 1 ohm). Also, have you checked whether your standalone on that end is sending proper signals to the coil so that will fire it properly? This is about as much as I could assist you and there are numerous members who are more knowledgeable about these sort of things from a comparative sense.

 

ok, got you, i am out of town right now, so i wont be able to attend to my car until i get back