A new CEL! (yes its a 3200GT..)

[Massa in Perth]

Hi all, hoping for some help or experience with this fault please?

Driving the other night and CEL popped up and car went into limp mode limiting revs to 3000.

Got the car home and checked the codes: P0355, P0356, P0357 and P0358. These are ignition coil faults on one bank of the engine.(Can anyone tell me which side please? Guessing same as cylinders 5 to 8).

3 hours later and all was good and car drove as normal. Then today, all good until I stopped to fill up, switched on the ignition and the CEL did not go out. Started car and limp mode again. Drove home and parked in garage, idling. Car revved freely (not limited).. Switched off, then on again and no CEL. Car back to normal!

I changed the plugs on the weekend but I have carefully checked in case I have pinched a cable on one side, all looks normal.

any ideas people?

Thanks , Toby

 

[rs48635]

How long have you had your 3200?
Sounds normal for the first few months of ownership in my experience.

 

[Massa in Perth]

2 1/2 years. Had O2 sensor CELs but never these and never gone into limp mode.

 

[rs48635]

Is your battery in tip-top condition? Worth fitting a barrery conditioner if car is seldom used.
Otherwise try the throttle pot reset routine, which helped my symptoms.

 

[davy83]

Ah yes, lets just hope Benny has got bored baiting 3200 owners. Since its happened out of the blue and its all the coil packs on one side does sort of suggest a wiring issue of some sort. I am wondering if there is a relay some where for these which might make them all fail like that? It may be worth looking at the fuses too. I have had coil pack errors but always a single coil pack and although i spent a few years replacing them one at a time, i just replaced the lot last year to save the fuss and the cars been brilliant ever since. Have you recently done any work on the car or had any sort of happening which might explain the sudden failure? Have you had it sitting in traffic for a long period where the engine bay temperatures got seriously hot? This will tend to aggravate any issues with the coils i think?
Unfortunately engine lights that come and go are pretty common and my car threw up the security warning today after probably 18 months since i have seen one of those. Wrote it in my log book and restarted it was fine, it's Italian! Coil pack warnings are not one of the warnings we tend to see being flakey (i.e. pop up for no real reason) so i suspect there is a real problem here some where unfortunately?

 

[BennyD]

No flack today mate, the sun is shining. On the way back from Oulton yesterday after a bit of a spirited thrash mine went into limp mode for no reason. It sounded fine idled fine and no CEL. At a set of traffic lights, I switched it off, waited three seconds, switched it back on and it ran perfectly thereafter. I gave her a bit more of a thrashing and she ran beautifully. Italian character; no rhyme, no reason, it just happens.

 

[rs48635]

^^^ Exactly what Benny says.
thsi si normal for me and my 3200. CLearly this did not suit many original owners, who retreated to the big safe arms of a German Fraulein to be cosseted again.
Lucky for many of us they helped create the deprectiaon we enjoyed at purchase time.
How mant BMW cars with M badges have repeated coil pack isses, noisy valve trains and recalcitrant gearboxes (Oh and ho brakes).

 

[jluis]

Mercedes V12 engines are known for blowing a complete bank of coil packs at once costing more than 1k to repair.

 

[conaero]

No flack today mate, the sun is shining. On the way back from Oulton yesterday after a bit of a spirited thrash mine went into limp mode for no reason. It sounded fine idled fine and no CEL. At a set of traffic lights, I switched it off, waited three seconds, switched it back on and it ran perfectly thereafter. I gave her a bit more of a thrashing and she ran beautifully. Italian character; no rhyme, no reason, it just happens.

...that will be the ghost of those legacy lights you fitted

 

[BennyD]

Almost certainly, but mentioning that would be too easy and like I said, the sun's shining.

 

[dem maser]

No flak? Thanks Benny

your now part of the gang with those lights......

 

[dem maser]

I had loads of lights in my first few months, never had any after that, so its a question of elimination, can get expensive as I found out but many times its what Benny said, yes I agree with Benny, it can be just an "Italian" thing

 

[Massa in Perth]

New plugs is all I've done, but too coincidental I think. Car driven daily and runs smoothly even in limp mode so it's not the coils themselves. I've had one explode and 7/8 cylinders is not a smooth ride. Agree, it has to be wiring but not sure how far upstream.

 

[davy83]

You can get the coil packs (with the wrong rubber plug fittings) on e-bay for about £40-50 each so replacing them is not a massive issue either way. Maybe if you get a dealer to do the job with original Maserati parts it might be £1000?

Mercedes V12 engines are known for blowing a complete bank of coil packs at once costing more than 1k to repair.

 

[jluis]

You can get the coil packs (with the wrong rubber plug fittings) on e-bay for about £40-50 each so replacing them is not a massive issue either way. Maybe if you get a dealer to do the job with original Maserati parts it might be £1000?

Or more ... I was quoted 1000€ to replace spark plugs in my local dealer
I don't know what they smoke there but I sure would like to smoke it too

 

[jluis]

So, according to the workshop manual each coil has a ground, +12V power and a trigger signal.
The 12V signal is controlled by a relay on a small black box on the side of the hood on your driver side.
Inside that black box you will find 3 relays, the coil control relay is the middle one (Picture bellow)


The schematic also seems to imply that there is a separate wiring from the relay to the left and right banks but I cannot find detailed information about that wiring.
There is a picture of the cable path between the coils, the relay and the grounds here:


Finaly, your codes seem to imply the problem is on your passenger side:


I would suggest looking at the relay, it's connections and follow the cables in that region.
Your symptoms and code suggest a poor ground or a failing power line from the relay

Hope this helps

 

[safrane]

Reading this makes me think Benny must have a CEL on !!! has his banter gone into limp mode too?

 

[Contigo]

Benny is like us now, he is forgiving of the CEL because when he looks at his cars **** the boomerangs really do improve things! Slowly he is morphing into the mindset of a 3200 owner!

 

[hodroyd]

Sounds like a potential intermittant earth issue, have you checked the earthing points to the relays..??

 

[Massa in Perth]

That's excellent Jorge, thanks. Pulled the relays last night and looked nice and clean but have not traced the wiring to earth yet. I'll take a look at that tonight. So far, problem has no recurred a third time, but I have no doubt that it will... On the bright side, it appears the new plugs have sorted the intermittent O2 CELs I was getting.