hokie027

Hello all,

I installed the coils today and ran into a problem. When I start the car I get a very putrid gas smell, which leads me to believe either a plug was not in all the way, or a wire is not fully on causing the car to run extremely rich. That would not be so problematic, however, what caused me to spend the last few hours in the garage was the ticking sound after about 30 seconds of running--which again sounds like a misfire or a faulty connection with a wire either from the plugs or the coils. In addition to the rich ticking, I have a Pioneer AVH 4200 headunit (its a Double DIN dvd player) and much like the ticking sound, after 30 seconds when the ticking starts the video on the screen gets extremely faded and fuzzy, giving a very poor picture... All of my thoughts lead me to believe I have a bad wire or connection. I don't want to mess with the coils too much in fear of breaking a connector. Pictures tell a thousand words so I've attached a few for my car:

Flashwing

Where did you place the ground for the wiring harness?

Did you feel/hear a solid connection from the coil and spark plug terminals?

hokie027

Placed it just to the left of the brake master cylinder area... I thought of grounding it just to the right where the factory ground is however I have the HKS grounded there and did not wish to double loop a ground--I'm not smart enough to know the implications of doing so. I did think the haze on the Double DIN was a direct resultant of the ground location of the coils; I did think of utilizing the spot just under the intake box, that is used by the radiator cooling fans. I'm game to any place that will clear up the haze issue.

Flashwing

You might try actually unhooking your HKS Twin Fire as it is totally unnecessary with our coil upgrade. HKS, themselves, have said it is not necessary.

The chassis grounding location specified in our instructions is the best ground location for our coils so it's important that it be hooked up there. Other locations may not provide optimal grounding. We've sold over 400 of these kits so our instructions are very specific based on customer feedback and hundreds of hours of testing and operation. I am familiar with the grounding location you are using and we have had previous issues with that spot.

Also, Charles Hill provides his email and phone number on every single one of our invoices. It's much easier to go straight to those who make the parts rather than the forum.

Did you hear or feel the click from the coil terminal and spark plug locations when hooking up your wires?

Finally, did you make any other changes to your RX8 when installing our kit? If so, I would examine your install to ensure there are no issues.

hokie027

Dont have the twin power ignition system--Knew that was a total waste from talking to Jeff... and I did utilize the chassis location intended for use in the instructions. It didnt have a good connection however because of the 6 pt strut bar, so I couldnt get the ground to lay flat under it, I did attempt multiple other connections. The HKS I was referring to is the HKS Circle Earth I have installed--the purple wires running from the negative terminal in the picture. Those are additional grounds I added and I am hesitant to ground the coils to an already grounded location. The directions stated "There are a few ground locations near the brake master cylinder area that use a 10mm bolt and we have found them to be acceptable." Although vague, I searched the forums and noted just left of the cylinder seemed to be the chosen spot, so I used it.

As far as contacting Charles... already done, just figured I'd post on the forum too since over 400 were sold someone may have a similar issue. With the pop and click sound on the plugs/coils, yes I heard it on all but one however it has a tight fit. It's plausible that the L1 Plug connection could be my problem child. Again, I'm up for any ideas to keep me from kicking a hole in my car and taking it in for some idiot to go "200$ and all I did was pop on a wire."

Flashwing

If you contacted Charles then I'll wait for him either to respond to this thread or to contact you directly. He has vastly more experience and knowledge in this area so he's the best person to ask.

hokie027

Haha dangit I'm an idiot... I'm going to ground the kit straight to the negative terminal of my battery... After all I have a grounding kit, I dunno why I'm trying to ground to the chassis. I'll tell you if that clears up most of the problem. The rest may just be my craftsmanship haha.

UPDATE: Grounding it to the Negative terminal on the battery resolved 95% of my problems, haha. The ticking is still there but I'm 99% sure thats due to a spark plug wire not being fully seated on the plug or coil. Dang, I'm mad I wasted my whole day looking for a ground when I had a freaking ground kit on the car!! Hahaha. Fail.