Bit late to the party and just a heads up from someone whom has never had a Jag coilpack failure but plenty or experience with these mystery things. I didn't wade thru the while thread but having had a lot to do with coilpacks on Renaults, Beemer's, SAAB's and Merc's are you guys using dielectric grease when changing out or refitting coil packs?

....it seems to be a bit of secret but Merc, Renault, General Motors, Beru and others have a dielectric grease listed as an OE service 'part'.

Renaults, Beemers and the Mercs are notorious for 'doing' coil packs, but what often happens is that you change one coil pack and disturb the rest in an effort to find the duff one and then the rest give issues a while later....they 'shouldn't' be the case if you use dielectric grease.

Just had the coil packs out of my X300 to check for oil contamination in the 'plug holes' (there wasn't) and first thing I reached for when refitting was my box of cotton buds and my tube of Dow Corning DC4 grease.

Keeping it simple, dielectric grease is sort of an 'anti-conductor'. It prevents arcing from the coil pack itself down the inside rubber part of the coil pack to outside of plug to closest engine conductor.

Another bonus is it prevents the coil pack rubber plug boot 'sticking' to the spark plug, which can be a real pain on Beemers, the X300 coil pack looks better in this respect.

The dielectric grease isn't a panacea, because what doesn't help is our 'buy cheap' mentallity. Quality sells but its a lot harder to sell quality when the the sum of 6 coil packs is a fair chunk of the value of the car!

If its any comfort coil pack failures, I believe, are a lot rarer on Jags than Renaults, Beemers and Mercs.

I've tried the cheapy coil packs for Renaults, Beemers and Mercs and they 'fail without fail' (ohh I like that phrase, that's a keeper!) I always use Bosch, Beru, NGK/NTK or Ricambi now...and dielectric grease...I should add I didn't use dielectric grease on the cheapy coil packs (simply didn't know to) so maybe I'm being harsh. This 'tip' was passed to me by a Merc' Master Tech...and a few weeks later by a Renault tech.

These modern coil packs produce such an amazingly 'big 'n powerful' spark that the 'big fat' spark can 'ground' even via (& thru!) the rubber insulaters of the coil pack with only a minimal amount of dirt, moisture or the wrong sort of grease/oil contamination needed...I have a Beru BMW 3 series coil pack with a hole blown thru the side of the coil pack rubber....coil packs are labelled 'dangerous' for a good reason.

Just a thought from another angle, and as they say....your mileage may vary.

 

PS I've also 'saved' misfiring coil packs with good clean and a lick of dielectric grease.

PPS Also a great way to prevent corrosion in electric connectors...all my junctions get a dose of it.

 

Just something I forgot to add regarding 'Lucas' boxed, badged components that may apply to the coil packs.

I have just sold a Moggy Thou' (Morris Minor!) and there has been much discussion regarding the dreadful quality of the new Lucas ignition components in Moggy circles echoed by other enthusiast sites of other Lucas equiped cars.

I bought a new Lucas rotor arm, dizzy cap, points and condensor for my Moggy and the visual quality was just dreadful, the fit just plain wrong, I could cut slices of fingernail off using the edge of the rotor arm it was was that poor, utter waste of money...I kept the old parts on the car instead and after a discussion with the new Moggies owner passed this junk on.

Since September 2004 a company called ELTA have owned the 'Lucas' name and the right to use the name and Lucas brand logo with production rumoured to be centered in India.

none of this should be a surprise. Lucas has had a muddled existance in the 70's, 80's and 90's...in no particular order from Lucas LTD, Lucas Industries PLC, Lucas Varity, Lucas TRW, even a part of Delphi, then the electical Lucas name as I say going to ELTA...as an ex Lucas CAV apprentice this is sad for me.

Moggy owners are paying three/four times the going rate for new old stock (NOS) 'Lucas' part, indeed there is a company here in England called the Dizzy Doctor making their own pattern NOS Lucas ignition parts, not cheap but great quality.

I have no knowledge of Lucas coil pack production for X300s but....

 

Many others have had problem with the Elta-made "Lucas" parts.

Back in the day when Lucas was really Lucas I can remember *insisting* on Lucas distributor caps and rotors because they were higher grade than the usual offerings. Sigh....those were the days, eh?



Lucas bought coils from Diamond Manufacturing, put a Lucas label on them, and sold them to Jaguar. Those are the good ones.

Now you can buy a "Lucas green box" coil under number DMB411 but it isn't the same coil as OEM. Maybe it's made by Elta?

Cheers
DD

 

I bought a 1994 Lincoln Mark VIII for $1500 that was a beautiful car in mint condition with one small problem: it would barely run and the PO gave up throwing parts at it. It has the 4.6L 4 valve V8 and the plug is centered in the head. The plug wires have plastic sleeves about 10" long to enable them to be seated on the plug.

This sleeve runs through the head to the plug, and the wire back to a coil pack (the 96 and on cars were coil on plug like the X300). After about 60,000 miles the insulation breaks down and this car had 2 plugs that would short to the head. Of course the injectors kept firing and dumping a lot of raw fuel into the catalytic converters. The cat melted and plugged off, which is why the car wouldn't run.

I replaced the cat and a new set of plug wires and it ran like a champ. I had a car in like new condition for very little money. A great highway cruiser that got 35 mpg.

 

The 'Dizzy Doctor' themselves haven't been immune to cheap copies of their products coming on the market, but then being sold in a Lucas box!

its a real minefield out there.

 

Last Spring the car was running incredibly rough. Turned out all my coils were cracked. I replaced them with "OEM bought in Britain" coils from a supplier I won't name.

Recently, out of the blue, I started having a problem. After driving a few miles all the lights on the dash console came on and all the gauges went to zero. After a few seconds everything came back except the Airbag light remained on and the info display showed "Airbag". By the time I got to about ten miles this was happening every minute or so, and the new symptom of an engine miss showed up whenever it happened. At about 20 miles the problem was happening almost constantly and if I stopped for a light the engine died but could be restarted.

I replaced the console with a used one. No effect.

I got EuroPart / Made in Japan coils from SNG Barratt, specifically Jaguar XJ6 XJR XJS Ignition Coil LHE1510AB Made In Japan!! True OEM. The problem is solved, so far.

 

The airbag code comes on whenever the voltage drops. I highly suspect the bulkhead positive terminal corrosion.

 

BTW I now stop dealing with the OEM coils. They only sell me more than 40 and it's a big amount of money I have to pay each time, in addition they won't offer me the boots. The orders are not so many, especially in Japan (less and less X300s are around here)
In the US SNG Barrat offers the OEM coils and if you are in the UK or Europe you can source them at David Manners. Look for "LHE1510AB#" at their website.

Thanks very much for your business ever.

 

So I bought a couple Eurospare coil packs some time back to carry as spares. Installed 1st one 05Dec16 to Cyl #4 due to rough running. Problem solved.

Installed 2nd one 21Mar17 to.....any guesses?.......... Cyl #4 to replace the first junk Eurospare. According to what can apparently be expected, I'll be replacing the coil pack on Cyl #4 again right around 04Jul17, this time with LHE1510AB# from SNG Barratt USA.

Quick and easy purchase from the helpful rep and a 3 year warranty all for only a bit more $ than the Eurospare junk I wrongly thought would be worth trying.

Need coil packs? SNG Barrett, p/n LHE1510AB#.

 

As I've grumbled about many times before, it's very hard to figure out what you're buying and who you're buying it from these days.

"Eurospare" is a division of Hotbray.

http://www.hotbray.co.uk/

Hotbray is apparently a multi-faceted distributor of actual OEM Jaguar and Landrover parts *AND* a distributor of variously branded aftermarket parts via their "Eurospare" division. And, apparently, this Eurospare division [at least partially] supplies the Jaguar Classic Parts enterprise.

Genuine Jaguar Parts and Jaguar Accessories for classic Jaguars from Jaguar Classic Parts UK


It's easy to see how "Eurospare" could be confused with "OEM", either innocently or deceptively.


Further, you can find online vendors advertising "Eurospare" parts but selling "Eurospares". The heading of a parts listing says "Eurospare" but if you go into the detail of the listing you'll see a "Eurospares" registered logo...somewhat similar to, but different than, the registered "Eurospare" logo. I have no idea what or who "Eurospares" is.

Cheers
DD

 

Doug, you're a wealth of information! Thanks for the insight.

Bob

 

So 3 posts above (post #230), I predicted my 2nd Eurospare coil would bite the dust right around 04Jul17. I was off by less than a week. On 10Jul17 Cyl #4 with the new Eurospare coil quit firing. I put in a new 'Made in Japan' coil purchased from SNG Barrett.

Time will tell how it does but one thing is for sure; the Eurospare coils are NOT worth the money!

 

We warranty our LHE1510AB# (Made in Japan) coils for 3 years! So any problems within that time please do get in touch.

http://www.sngbarratt.com/ProductDet...8-617ea71443cb

Regards
SNG

 

Bought a new 1995 XJ. The original coils went ten years. Bought six new ones from Welsh. They came in Jag boxes and they lasted ten years. Ever since then any coil I've bought from various sources lasts about a year. Frustrated, I bought a cheap six-pack of coils for $120 on Ebay. They don't seem any worse to me.

bliving7

 

Last October I bought my non-running 1997 XJ6. I bought a set of six new coils off eBay for a whopping $89, shipping included. Before installing them, I wrapped them all in Kapton electronic heat shielding tape. As of today, I passed 16,000 miles without a hiccup as it is my daily driver. Keeping my fingers crossed...

 

Have you any coils for x300? Thanks. JOhn

 

It appears that SNG Barrett has the OEM in stock again. Please also check carefully the condition of the magnesium cam cover. When the coils arc they create pits and sharp edges inside the spark plug wells that attract more arcs.

https://www.sngbarratt.com/us/#!/Eng...8-617ea71443cb

 

Greetings all my poor old jag in on the fritz and I am stumped it starts and runs very rough with black smoke....a little info Nov 1997 car in cherry cond. [Its old but I like it] no codes comp.182 all cyl.checked the plugs very black new CPS new fuel pressure regulator. New fuel pump [from above thanx for the info] all injectors removed and cleaned new temp sender even tried a different ecu no banana. One thing is confusing the injector pulse gap I 7ms when I crank it over ..any input would be most appreciated.

 

Greetings all my poor old jag in on the fritz and I am stumped it starts and runs very rough with black smoke....a little info Nov 1997 car in cherry cond. [Its old but I like it] no codes comp.182 all cyl.checked the plugs very black new CPS new fuel pressure regulator. New fuel pump [from above thanx for the info] all injectors removed and cleaned new temp sender even tried a different ecu no banana. One thing is confusing the injector pulse gap I 7ms when I crank it over ..any input would be most appreciated.