So a previous co-worker contacted me about his brakes.I checked them out, on his rear drums both of his wheel cylinders are leaking and the shoes are glazed and ruined.
Checked his front brakes, they're OK other than his pads are low, looked at the suspension, both tie rods and lower ball joints are shot, he has uneven tire wear.
Before we left I noticed his car had a misfire, took a test light, hooked it to known good ground ( verified the good ground by having test light on BAT + and made contact with said ground, test light lit).
Anyways, before I did any testing, I explained to him he has a misfire and it's most likely ignition related, but there's a smaller chance it's fuel related, and even smaller chance (close to nill) it's compression related.
The first coil I unplugged and intercepted with a test light made no change in how the engine ran. The arc was so weak the test light had to be less than a mm away to see spark activity.
Tested a known good coil and the spark was vibrant and jumped out of the coil pack socket. Diagnosis done a few seconds, you need a new coil pack sir.
I only removed ONE plug at a time and it ran WORSE after I finished the diagnosis, sounded like two missing cylinders CHRIST, since I messed with the ignition system, I ate the cost of the coil pack in fear I'd loose work from him or worse, he'd bad mouth me. You never know who knows who until it's too late.
He also verified I only removed ONE at a time.
$94 down the drain, but at least I'll break even with the brake job and oil change
!