Mr_Asa
UltimaDork
11/5/22 1:10 a.m.
Hey folks
Dad's '94 Toyota pick'em'up is running a lot better than it was, but still does weird stuff that is not confidence inspiring for long distance travel.
The contacts were cleaned on the coil and igniter and that did the lion's share of the work, but its still not quite right. Next step he'd like to try is replacing those parts, however they appear to be NLA and ~$270 for a used set. Can anyone keep an eye out for a coil and igniter as they are perusing the junkyards? We'll gladly pay for your time and shipping
Alternatively, is there maybe an aftermarket solution that might not be that much? MSD, Accel, a Summit racing special, or something?
Pic below is what they look like, as well as the part numbers
The coil itself is easy enough to replace with an aftermarket part. I'd take an MSD over Accel even though Holley owns both now - near as I can tell, they have kept the internals different. Or a Bosch coil from an E30 325 is even better than the MSD. But the ignition module is a bigger can of worms. It's similar to a 7 pin HEI but the trigger signal from the distributor is not as strong.
Rockauto shows to have NGK coils for it.
They look similar to parts from a90's 4age. I replace my igniter with one that has a different number than stock and it worked. At the time- mid 00's, minds you, they were readily available on eBay
Also-what was causing my issues were burnt traces on the ECU board causing problems with the igniter
The engine in my older Audi is sometimes challenging (but more-often just expensive) to find certain parts for. In many cases, I've found that it's valuable to understand the function of a part and then search for similar versions across other manufacturers. That's helped me be frugal when needed, or simply modernize / standardize parts that seemed "mysteriously" VAG specific.
In the case of ignition you can do the same approach to boil down function. I'm not familiar much with Toyota so it's hard to be certain, but is the igniter built onto the coil itself? If that's what's making it hard to find a replacement, then you can explore options for using a separately mounted igniter and a "dumb" coil. To help your search (if you want to) VW / Audi typically call them Power Output Stage (POS) Modules, or you'll hear them called Ignition Control Modules (ICM).