So I took the weekend to change the plugs and coils on my car, and thought "while I was in there" I'd pre-order the valve lift solenoid brackets (or whatever the heck they're officially called) juuuust in case one of them was broken.

So I get crackin...


And notice something on the passenger side that doesn't look quite right.

I suppose that counts as a shadetree 'fix'. Guess I'll need one of these bad boys afterall.

Long story short, here's what I ended up with:

2 for 2.

Car is an '02 with ~54k miles. Just reaplced some worn motor mounts, no idea if the old ones contributed. If anyone's going to be doing coils/plugs any time soon, go ahead and order the brackets!

Also, I guess the last person in there to fix the problem went ahead and did the spark plug change. Plugs had no electrode wear, although I'm not sure what old bosch twin tip plugs actually look like. Coils looked great too, but they were the 996 pn. Anyone want some used, but not very used coils and plugs? If it wasn't so much damn work I would have left them in there!

 

also, the coil closest to the wheel on the passenger side had one of its hex screws stripped >:I more like 700 lb/ft vs the 7 or whatever it should be. Talk about a pain in the *** to remove!

 

Good catch! I'm surprise about the bigger washer used (probably by the previous owner) to hold the broken bracket in place..This bracket is only $16.44???? Good job zmt!

 

what are the part numbers for them? good part to have laying in the toolbox.

 

99610531072, your like me, lots of spare parts ;-)

 

I can see it being done by an individual that already had the car taken apart and couldn't wait to get the parts in (assuming they wouldn't go to a dealer). I'm also guessing though that it wasn't enough to keep the solenoid 100% seated, since I was smelling some burning oil occasionally and from what I saw when I pulled out the solenoid the oil that comes out sure does like to find its way to the headers.

 

Nice catch.

So did you jack the car up, take the wheels off, remove the bumper, then put the wheels back on and set it down? Just trying to figure out how you got the rear bumper and fender linings off with the wheel still there, it's damn tight. Unless you just like to limit your work space lol.

 

Just a clever use of tools. I had a T25 bit inside a 1/4" socket on one of those finger socket wrench things. With the suspension drop from the car being jacked up I didn't find any reason to remove the wheels. Plus I have some weird thing where I can't remove the wheels by hand anymore now that I have air tools and I wasn't about to fire up the compressor

 

^Lol, nice. I hadn't tried to remove the fender lining without removing the wheel. It looked tight and just hadn't given it a shot yet, glad to know it can be done though.

Air tools do spoil us though don't they!

 

Anyone know labor hours required to do this. Just got my 02 turbo, in first 250 miles of ownership, had coolant pipe failure, clutch accumulator fail. Had engine out service including weld job of all pipes, new water pump, expansion tank, clutch, accumulator, and major service. About 150 miles later had CEL light come on, had misfire codes P300, 304, 306...and noticed slight stutter hesitation. Cleared codes and then 50 miles later CEL came back on, got code P0040.
Based on this awesome forum, I think the solenoid bracket may be culprit.
Anyways, after all above issues I am way over budget and hoping this is not a lot of labor to fix, I know part is only about $20.
Thanks
Colin

 

basically however much labor it would be to swap plugs. I'm guessing 2-3 hrs for an experienced shop considering the bumper and ICs have to come off?

Just my WAG though. If you have hand tools you can do it yourself fairly easily, but I can understand not wanting to fiddle with it.

 

Appreciate response. I am not even close to be able to do this myself, part of fun of buying car is to start learning how to do DIY jobs as ownership progresses.
Thanks again!
Colin

 

Had mine done with plugs and coil packs too. Even though the brackets looked okay.

 

What's causing these things to fail? They metal, bolted in and can't flex. Weird...

 

casting/molding defect combined with heat+vibration over time? All the ones I've seen have broken in the same place (where the arm of the bracket meets the enlarged/flared bolt hole). The arm with the straight hole never seems to break. maybe the hole is slightly off center and the vibrations impart some kind of torque on that arm? Who knows? Buy a few to keep in the tool box!