CINO AUTO REPAIR INC.
499 Barton Street Stoney Creek, ON L8E 2L7 (905) 662-2000

CINO AUTO REPAIR INC. Automotive Tips: Ignition Coils

Last Updated: Nov 19, 2019

Hello Stoney Creek drivers, lets talk about Ignition Coils.

Fuel and air are ignited in your engine to create a small explosion to generate power. The spark plug provides a tiny blast of high voltage electricity to light the fire. The key phrase here is “high voltage”. Your vehicle’s battery has just 12 volts – not nearly enough to power the spark plug. It’s the job of the ignition coils to amplify those 12 volts into the up to 100,000 volts needed.

A cable from the battery enters the ignition coil. True to its name, the coil has two windings (coils), of copper wire. The first winding uses a thicker wire and the second winding has thousands of winds of smaller wire. By the time the electricity has passed through the windings, the voltage has increased enough to power the spark plug.

Some engines have just one ignition coil that runs through a distributor which routes a burst of electricity to the individual spark plugs. Many modern engines have one ignition coil for every two engine cylinders. Other engines are designed with a “coil-on-plug” system that has individual ignition coils that attach directly to each spark plug.

Because of the intense amounts of electricity that pass through ignition coils, they wear out. When a coil fails to provide enough electricity to fire a spark plug(s), the engine “misses”. The engine will run rough and may shut down entirely.

It’s generally advisable to replace all of the ignition coils at the same time. Once one has failed, others are probably not far behind. This is also often a good time to replace the spark plugs as well.

Any time your engine is running rough, have the team at CINO AUTO REPAIR INC. inspect it. We have the diagnostic equipment and expertise to isolate the trouble, fix it and get drivers back on the road quickly.

Stop by or give us a call.
CINO AUTO REPAIR INC.
499 Barton Street
Stoney Creek, ON L8E 2L7
(905) 662-2000
www.cinoautorepair.com

At CINO AUTO REPAIR INC. we install quality NAPA replacement parts.