Does it damage the rotary if you continue driving with an ignition coil failure?

 

I think your biggest problem is being able to drive at all with a coil failure, I wouldn't if I were you.

 

If you pop a trailing coil, it will idle poorly, but power will be fine.
If you pop a leading coil, it becomes really hard to drive, but it will idle OK.
If you pop a leading coil, just swap the plug wire and coil connector between the good trailing coil and the bad leading coil on that rotor. Be sure you switch both or you will break the motor.
That will get you home.

 

how do you even know that you have a failed ignition coil? CEL appear?

 

Symptoms mentioned in the post directly above yours.

 

this has happened to me twice and I've gotten it towed twice. CEL came on both times with me...I suggest you don't drive it.... does anyone know what causes it? I suspect a weak alternator but..

 

Blown coils will not inherently set off the CEL. There is no CEL for bad coils.
However, a misfire (precipitated by a coil failure) might.

 

The CEL light was on so i got it checked - 'Ignition Coil No. 4 Failure'.
I've been driving, nevertheless. There is a slight power drop and the car has slightly started missing as well especially when idling.

So, your advice would be to not drive it unless the coil has been replaced?

 

There is no DTC for ignition coil failure.

Your symptoms might be a blown trailing coil pack, but there won't be a "coil failure" code for it because there isn't one.

 

Why risk getting stranded (as I did - twice)..... I would get it replaced asap. Get them to check the alternator and plugs while they're at it.

 

So I was reading below, is there any truth that if you have a old alternator or one that is starting to go bad could it effect the ignition coils???

 

holy thread revival, batman!

coils are maintenance items. There have been no fewer than 3 major revisions to them since 2003. You should have to expect to replace them once every 30,000 miles.

 

If your alternator isn't putting out it's full voltage, then the coils won't put out as strong a spark. If it's bad enough, you will get misfires.

 

True for the oem coils, but the BHR heavy duty coils should last the lifetime of your car.

 

when did we jump over to BHR coils? Did I miss something in the 7 years between posts?

 

I had a bad coil and it resulted in misfire, rough driving and idling, etc. Not sure how much I could have driven it (i didn't do any more but move it a few feet), but the unburned gas is not good for your exhaust and can cook your catalyst and leave carbon build up.

As others have said and should be clear, replace your old coils early not late.

 

Yesterday had symptoms of coil failure again, rough start, low power build up in first to about 4k rpm in 1st, deeper exhaust tone. This will be the 3rd time I've had to replace the coils. I just hit 49k mi in my 08' 40th anniversary. Is there something else that could be causing the coil failure? Seems like failure every 10k mi not normal.

 

try the rev "C" coils from mazmart or buy the cheap duralast ones from autozone that have a lifetime warranty.

or you could pony up for some LS truck coils. I've been running the same set of BHR coils for about 3 years now (40 or so thousand miles).

 

Do you still have a catalytic converter?
If so, get it checked, with that many failures it could be getting clogged.

 

could be due to a harsher environment, like extremely short trips where the ignition has to tolerate excessively rich fuel mixtures. losing ignition does not immediately mean the WHOLE ignition system needs to be replaced, perhaps just the spark plugs, the plugs usually look in fairly poor condition after 10k miles of normal driving use.

 

I'm pretty good about letting it warm up before driving but do only have about a 10 mile commute everyday... Could be that. Funny thing is it seems to be happening soon after I leave it for yearly inspection. Could they be messing it up somehow? Either way looks like I'm throwing in some new ones. Thanks guys

 

^Not convinced that your low mile commute has anything to do with your issue. For the last six years my commute to work is about 5 miles. Never experienced any issue with my coils. I tend to take weird routes to make my commute longer and more fun though

Like BigCajun said…check your CAT. Further, when your coils failed did you check other ignition components to see if they were performing ok? Could your wires being shot? How about your plugs?

 

^Not convinced that your low mile commute has anything to do with your issue. For the last six years my commute to work is about 5 miles. Never experienced any issue with my coils. I tend to take weird routes to make my commute longer and more fun though

Like BigCajun said…check your CAT. Further, when your coils failed did you check other ignition components to see if they were performing ok? Could your wires being shot? How about your plugs?

Yeah, at about 30k/mi I originally thought CAT problems, had Mazda check it out, they said it was fine and just needed tune up so I did Plugs, Wires, Coils then- problem solved until about 40k... and Coils again. All good again until now. I didn't want to admit it but I've used the Pep Boys BHD/ (or whatever they're called, forget now) coils. I'm assuming they're crap considering whats been happening. I'm an "on a budget" repair kind of guy so I'm thinking about taking the advice here about the Duralast coils, about $30 a piece, but I heard they have a good warranty. Also, I noticed this weekend that my battery cells were really dry- would that affect the coils?

 

If the dealer checked your cat, & told you it was good while still under warranty, I would consider getting a second opinion.
You could bring it to a muffler shop & get it checked, jic.

 

This is a great possibility. Rx8 parts are expensive, but there is a good reason for this. Duralast coils come with a life warranty I believe. Many in this forum have gone this route.

I doubt it. It would not hurt though to do a battery test and act accordingly.

As far as the CAT, there are a couple of ways you can check it yourself. The easiest is after you drive the car hard for a bit (e.g. 10 minutes) check underneath and see if your CAT glows (do this in a complete dark area). If it does your CAT is gone.

You can also pull out the CAT and take a look at it. Put a flash light on one end and see if the light comes out the other end in a uniform way. Not hard to take the CAT out, assuming that you feel comfortable jacking your car and doing some work