Opinions for coil packs and sparkplugs?

[RedBarediver]

Hi all,

 

I am looking to replace coil packs and spark plugs on my 2.5 and was wondering what you all have found to be the best.

Looking online there is a selection of coil packs ranging from £30 to £142 per coil pack. Spark plugs tend to range from £2 or so all the way up to £42. I don't mind spending a bit of money on the car but it's a bit of fun and not an every day car, or a track day car. I would rather sink the money into other bits that it will need and if I don't have to spend over £1,000 just replacing coil packs and plugs, I would rather not. However the plugs have not been changed in my ownership yet (had too many other things to do on the car and it didn't seem to be giving any problems with ignition so I've left it alone) and I would like to do them now.

Autodoc suggests RIDEX for coil packs - any good?

I'm happy with BOSCH for spark plugs as they're usually quite good.

[½cwt]

BEUR ZS178 are the OE replacements.  Set of 6 for around £120 from Autodoc.

[Daboy3000]

11 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

BEUR ZS178 are the OE replacements.  Set of 6 for around £120 from Autodoc.

Not sure why these say they are for 2.7 and not 2.5s is it thier error?

[½cwt]

Just now, Daboy3000 said:

Not sure why these say they are for 2.7 and not 2.5s is it thier error?

There is a BERU ZS177, which cost over £30 each, but is the equivalent of the original which has been up issued by Porsche to the ZS178.

[RedBarediver]

3 hours ago, ½cwt said:

BEUR ZS178 are the OE replacements.  Set of 6 for around £120 from Autodoc.

Awesome, thanks! I'll have a look and get some ordered. The last set of originals have lasted for 26 years so I'm sure these will be okay (and I presume you were typing a bit too fast and meant to say BERU ) 

 

Edited to say I just had a look and the ones identified by their system for the 2.5 are £47 each...

Edited July 31, 2023 by RedBarediver

[½cwt]

37 minutes ago, RedBarediver said:

Awesome, thanks! I'll have a look and get some ordered. The last set of originals have lasted for 26 years so I'm sure these will be okay (and I presume you were typing a bit too fast and meant to say BERU ) 

 

Edited to say I just had a look and the ones identified by their system for the 2.5 are £47 each...

The up issued Porsche part number even for 97 to 99 cars is 997 602 107 02, check the BERU (got it right...) ZS178 is a match for that.

[½cwt]

By the way if using Autodoc, use the app, prices are better.

[RedBarediver]

14 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

The up issued Porsche part number even for 97 to 99 cars is 997 602 107 02, check the BERU (got it right...) ZS178 is a match for that.

Awesome, thanks for that. Although on Frazerpart it says ZS178 is for the 03 - 08 Boxster 986/987 (https://frazerpart.com/products/ignition-coils-for-986-987-boxster-cayman-all-models-03-08-996-997-carrera-all-models-02-08) and the ZS177 is for all Boxster models to 2002, as well as the 996 Carrera of the same vintage (https://frazerpart.com/products/coil-pack-x6-for-986-boxster-all-models-2002-9963-4l-ignition-coils).

£215 for all 6 coil packs which works out to £36 each. Way cheaper than Autodoc at £48 each...

My engine still runs fine so there's no rush yet, just want to start fixing these things as and when I run across them. I have fixed a bunch of other things and can now start concentrating on the engine.

Edited July 31, 2023 by RedBarediver

[½cwt]

The only difference between the two parts is that on one version the shoulders where the bolts fix it to the cam cover are stepped down (they come with new bolts so not problem with bolt length) otherwise identical.  Save £20 per coil....  I have this same job coming up on mine before the winter service, cracks were noted at last year's service and I think if felt a couple of misses in the heavy rain last week.  I will be fitting ZS178 coils.

[RedBarediver]

19 minutes ago, ½cwt said:

The only difference between the two parts is that on one version the shoulders where the bolts fix it to the cam cover are stepped down (they come with new bolts so not problem with bolt length) otherwise identical.  Save £20 per coil....  I have this same job coming up on mine before the winter service, cracks were noted at last year's service and I think if felt a couple of misses in the heavy rain last week.  I will be fitting ZS178 coils.

That's good to know. I haven't done it yet so I'm flying blind.

£18 per coil pack instead of £48  That works for me.

Total for six coil packs and six spark plugs is £133

Edited July 31, 2023 by RedBarediver

[½cwt]

Just a note for you, the spark plugs for the 2.5 are different.  BERU 14FR-7LDU or Bosch FR7LDC or equivalents.

[RedBarediver]

13 hours ago, ½cwt said:

Just a note for you, the spark plugs for the 2.5 are different.  BERU 14FR-7LDU or Bosch FR7LDC or equivalents.

Thanks!

[RedBarediver]

Using the Bosch spark plugs the total comes to £143.10 VAT included. Pretty good deal I would say.

Thanks for all your help everyone!

[charlieboy2608]

@RedBaredriver might be worth checking the spark plug tubes and O rings while you are there for oil leaks otherwise you will be doing the job twice 🙂

[RedBarediver]

45 minutes ago, charlieboy2608 said:

@RedBaredriver might be worth checking the spark plug tubes and O rings while you are there for oil leaks otherwise you will be doing the job twice 🙂

Yes indeed. I am looking at those too. Like you say, no sense in changing the coil packs and sparkplugs without doing the plug tubes and o-rings.

[½cwt]

21 minutes ago, RedBarediver said:

Yes indeed. I am looking at those too. Like you say, no sense in changing the coil packs and sparkplugs without doing the plug tubes and o-rings.

Tubes should be OK, but worth getting the O-rings:

6 off  - 999 707 343 41   O-ring 25.07 x 2.62

6 off - 999 707 215 40   O-ring 27.94 x 5.33

Tube is 996 105 325 52

 

After market tube kit with O-rings is about £5.25 each from D911, Porsche without O-rings a little over £7.  Genuine O-rings are about £2.50 each for the first and about ££4.50 (after market £2) for the second.

[tonyplymouth]

1/2cwt - thank you for all that very useful info.  Could you clarify please; presumably the O-ring sizes you quote are bore x section?  Also what material are they; nitrile or viton, or something else?

[½cwt]

2 hours ago, tonyplymouth said:

1/2cwt - thank you for all that very useful info.  Could you clarify please; presumably the O-ring sizes you quote are bore x section?  Also what material are they; nitrile or viton, or something else?

No idea on the material and bear in mind the dims given are not what you measure out of the box, it is in their fitted condition.  They are probably different materials, although what you suggest is likely, as one is orange and one is black in the pictures I have seen.  If I were replacing them as a planed service/maintenance I think I'd get the complete tube kits offered by D911 even though they are aftermarket items.  At about £36 of a car set it is a major saving on OE parts.

[tonyplymouth]

Thanks 1/2cwt.  The O-ring sizes mentioned in the PET are actually BS1808/ISO3601 "120" and "320" sizes readily available from bearing and seal suppliers in a variety of "rubber" formulations such as nitrile, viton and silicone.  Incidentally the dimensions quoted are the actual size of the ring, not the groove .  ISO 3601 specifies corresponding groove sizes to give the correct "squeeze" for good sealing.  Strangely the two rings are actually imperial sizes (1 x 3/32inch and 1 1/8 x 3/16inch) but other components of the Boxster engine have imperial dimensions too, for example the dual-row IMS bearing.

If only we knew what material Porsche specified for these O-rings (probably viton or silicone to withstand the heat) we could obtain them for a fraction of the Porsche cost.

But for the moment I agree that service kits complete with tubes and O-rings are the way to go.  There are reports on USA Porsche forums that some after market tubes have ring grooves that are not very round and have moulding joint line "flash" in the grooves which can lead to leaks after installation.

An anomaly I have come across is that the 986 workshop manual specifies use of tyre mounting paste for assembling these tubes in the cylinder head.  I think I would be nervous of using this water based stuff and would prefer to follow the note in the  PET which specifies grease 9999177880.  This grease has been superseded by various other brews over the years including 00004320635 and 00004330557 but is, I think, ordinary O-ring assembly silicone grease.

[½cwt]

1 hour ago, tonyplymouth said:

Thanks 1/2cwt.  The O-ring sizes mentioned in the PET are actually BS1808/ISO3601 "120" and "320" sizes readily available from bearing and seal suppliers in a variety of "rubber" formulations such as nitrile, viton and silicone.  Incidentally the dimensions quoted are the actual size of the ring, not the groove .  ISO 3601 specifies corresponding groove sizes to give the correct "squeeze" for good sealing.  .....

Thanks for putting me right on the O-Ring sizes.  It was an ancient wrongly recalled memory from my hands on time in an engineering workshop during my Mech Eng degree, measuring the groove and measuring the ring when not fitted will not give compatible sizes, you have to look it up.

With the aftermarket tubes, check and carefully detail out any excess moulding flash with a scalpel before fitting.

[Whizzard986]

Hi there 986ers

I just spotted this thread just at the time I was about to renew plugs, tubes, and coil packs!

I don’t want to hijack op thread but I’m particularly interested in the difference between BERU ZS177 and ZS178 coil packs which appear to be identical.

I own a 2000m.y. 986 2.7 Boxster and my question is Why would any 986 owner pay full price for the original listed replacement pack (with short bolts) when ZS178 (with long bolts)seems to do the job better and significantly less expensively?
 

I would always try to fit original spec parts in favour of cheaper pattern parts but these BERU items would be a no brainer.

I can’t find any comment on this elsewhere on the net. Are we sure that Porsche list ZS178 as a universal replacement? If so then why carry ZS177?
 

Has anybody yet done this? I wouldn’t want to go ahead only to find that the management computer throws up more faults!

Any comments from people with much more Porsche knowledge than mine?

 

[½cwt]

The only detectable difference is that on one the retaining bolt holes go half way up the coil head and on the other they are flush with the top of the coil head.  The change from ZS177 to ZS178 coincided with the up issue of the Porsche part number.  If you go to Porsche they will provide the up issued part even for an older car, which is the ZS178.  BERU are the OR supplier to Porsche, so these are the OE parts, like there are a number of Bosch sensors, TRW/Pankl suspension arms, Bilstein dampers, Sachs top mounts, Behr radiators etc...

[Whizzard986]

Thanks for your response! If only AUTODOC had a better delivery time! 
I’ve removed coils and plugs today but won’t remove plug tubes until new ones arrive. Plugs look alright but several coil packs are cracked. Let’s hope that these are the source of my engine check light. I’ll report back if I can get ZS178 at a good price.

[½cwt]

1 hour ago, Whizzard986 said:

Thanks for your response! If only AUTODOC had a better delivery time! 
I’ve removed coils and plugs today but won’t remove plug tubes until new ones arrive. Plugs look alright but several coil packs are cracked. Let’s hope that these are the source of my engine check light. I’ll report back if I can get ZS178 at a good price.

Should be under £20 each on Autodoc.  2 to 3 times the price at least elsewhere.

TBH with Autodoc I order the parts, wait for them to arrive then plan when to do the work.

[Whizzard986]

£20.43 from Car parts for less with some sort of special time limited deal! They are in stock so should come fairly soon.👍