Ignition overheating ??

[Trip]

After every race, i let the engine to cool for about 5minutes and switch it off, when i tried to restart the engine, it will not switch on. I hooked up my laptop and from DataScan i found a fault "ignition curcuit malfunction". I cleared it and car started.

It did this twice in a row after every run. The third and forth run, i let the engine to cool this time with bonnet open and the car had no fault coming up. So i figured out the Ignition coil is overheating or was this a coincidence ?

Has anyone ever exerienced overheating of the Ignition coil and getting a CEL ?

 

[PobodY]

Probably not the coil. It's probably the transistor (or whatever it is) that's attached to it. - There's a mod the Australians run to heat-sink it and stop it over-heating. Maybe that's what you need in Malta too?

 

[Trip]

Ok great. So it is in fact overheating and not just a coincidence. I am running a TMIC wich will not help it either. The heat here is another big factor to consider too.

 

[PobodY]

It's not usually a problem in the UK - I'm still trying to find a link or a picture of it.
Might be a complete red herring, but it sounds like it might be your problem.

Try this thread.

 

[red reading]

Ignition amplifier module,little black thing by the coil

 

[Trip]

It's not usually a problem in the UK - I'm still trying to find a link or a picture of it.
Might be a complete red herring, but it sounds like it might be your problem.

Try this thread.

Great. Thanks

Would be a good thing to put some plastic washers between the block and bracket to reduce heat transfer too.

 

[Dangerous Dave]

Could you not take it off the bracket and move it to near the battery??
Or where it was if its in the boot?

 

[red reading]

Could you not take it off the bracket and move it to near the battery??
Or where it was if its in the boot?

yes you could

 

[gtirx2]

Heres what i have done with mine...

Heat sink stolen from a playstation 2 and the rubber spaces removed from an old tailgate.

 

[olliecast]

i`ll be doing this then!

 

[Trip]

The problem seems worse then i originally anticipated.

Since last sunday race, I arrived home, unloaded the car off the trailer and parked it in the garage on its own power. Switched it OFF and that was it.

Today, i tried switching it ON and it didn't start. Hooked up the laptop and found fault code 21 again. Cleared it and tried starting it again but no start again. Fault code 21 popped up again.
Swapped power transistor and coil from my spare engine and yet again, It did not start and fault code 21 came again. WTF ???


What could it be ?

 

[gtirjoey]

i have recently had this problem mate with code 21 fusion ed was very helpful and i solved my issues.....

There is a wire that comes from the output of the ign amp to the coil its then fed back to the ECU on pin 3 via a resistor/condenser.

print this out: http://www.fusion-motorsport.co.uk/d...CS_DIAGRAM.PDF The page with the ecu plug on it:

The ignition amp (F12) is driven by pin 1 from the ECU.
The output of the ignition amp goes to the coil and also to the resistor/condenser (F4) wire G/Y
The output of the resistor goes to Pin 3 on the ECU wire Y/R
If no signal is going back to the ECU on pin 3 then you get error code 21...

So your car runs, so you know the ign amp and coil are fine, that means somewhere from the G/Y wire via the resistor to pin 3 on the ECU there is a problem.. you just goto find that!

copy and pasted from information ed sent me hope it helps you it certainly helped me

 

[Trip]

Thanks Joe, From my preliminary debugging, it looks like i am not getting +12v feed to coil and transistor (black/red wire). I have an FIA master switch connected on the same cable(black/red) just before the transistor and i am guessing its something related to it.