ignition coil going bad?
 

Can anyone tell me the causes of how an ignition coil can go bad? Sitting from unuse?

I am wondering as well.

It seemed that it all started when I washed the engine without covering the coil. Isn't it covered in the first place by the plastic cover?

Anyway, still not sure whether its spoilt or not. I get car stalling on me when driving at any speeds.... freaky.

coils are wierd things....lots of intermittent problems.
They get hot and short out and still work, but not "like they should"
My 560SL had a hesitation that I thought was a fuel distributor/injector problem....turned out to be a coil. Mechanic said it was just out of specs.....not by much, but enough to not provide a good spark.
Don't think a coil would cause stalling though......maybe I am wrong - when was it tested/last replaced?

Not sure when it was last replaced. Got it from dealer with no service records.

If the appearance can be trusted, it looks really old. but everything on this car looks old....

Coils don't cost that much. To go ahead and replace one as PM on a 15-year-old car is not unreasonable.

Yeah I would think so as well. sometimes we really need to replace some things in life to really make a difference or even attempt to make a difference rather than sit and wait for things to happen. I will change it out this weekend.:kiss:

Coil Replacement
 

I have a 87 300E. At about 150K, it started stalling at the stop signs. My indie tried everything under the sun to find the problem (didn't charge for anything that didn't solve the problem). After 6 months I mentioned the problem to my son in law who owned a Passat. He had the same problem and changed the coil and solved his problem. We tried that on the 300E and it solved the problem also. Now my indie has included a new coil in his maintnence program for older Mercedes.
Anziani

I have a seperate thread on that. Will replace the coil and update into that thread. I found some threads really helpful when they posted results and closed the issues.:wacky: