Ian C
07-03-06, 01:03
The coil pack connectors are becoming a weak point as the Supra gets older. Now, one of two things could be happening. Either the plastic case is brittle and self destructs, in which case it's "new connector and pass me the soldering iron" time (see pic 1), OR, you've got a bit of a misfire that can't be explained with new coil packs or plugs, and it only seems to have happened after swapping these aforementioned items about...
As the Refurbing your ECU connectors (http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?t=35917) article describes, a lot of plugging and unplugging can result in a marginal connection, and this describes how to tighten up the coil pack connectors so that hopefully your mysterious misfire will go away. All you need is a sturdy flat bladed precision screwdriver and some patience...
Carefully unplug the coil pack connector. Pop the two tabs shown in pic 2 and pull out the first part of the housing. Now pop out the white plastic centre by applying outward pressure with the screwdriver as shown in pic 3. At the halfway out point this part will need a bit of a tug to remove it, make sure you pull straight.
To get the pin out, there is a tab that you have to push the screwdriver blade into and upwards to detach it from locking the metal pin in place. This is an acquired skill :) Hold the connector by the wire that is attached to the pin you wish to remove. Pinch the thumbtip and fingertip right up against the housing so that as you grip the wire your fingers are forcing it back and away from the connector housing. This way, as soon as you prise the locking tab out, the pin will pop backwards and can then be removed quite easily (!). See pics 4 and 5 for the tab that you have to poke at. Some will come out easily, some can be a 'mare.
Once the pin is out, you'll see how much of a gap there is for the coil pack pin to sit in (pic 6). The coil pack pin is usually rather thinner than this gap which is what can cause your misfire problems. We need to tighten this gap up, so, looking at the pin from the other direction (pic 7) you can see the metal tab that we are going to push down and away a bit, thus bending the internal metal of the pin closer together than it currently is. Inset is an idea of the bit you are aiming at (in blue) and a blue line across it showing the angle of the screwdriver blade to achieve a result. Don't go mad, you can't press too hard anyway it's such a fiddly job, but you should be able to get it like in pic 8. You can see the difference in pic 9 between the original big gap and the nice new narrow gap.
Putting it all back together is easy, I promise - everything clicks into place. I recommend doing one wire at a time though so you don't inadvertantly wire your coil packs up the wrong way around!
-Ian
As the Refurbing your ECU connectors (http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?t=35917) article describes, a lot of plugging and unplugging can result in a marginal connection, and this describes how to tighten up the coil pack connectors so that hopefully your mysterious misfire will go away. All you need is a sturdy flat bladed precision screwdriver and some patience...
Carefully unplug the coil pack connector. Pop the two tabs shown in pic 2 and pull out the first part of the housing. Now pop out the white plastic centre by applying outward pressure with the screwdriver as shown in pic 3. At the halfway out point this part will need a bit of a tug to remove it, make sure you pull straight.
To get the pin out, there is a tab that you have to push the screwdriver blade into and upwards to detach it from locking the metal pin in place. This is an acquired skill :) Hold the connector by the wire that is attached to the pin you wish to remove. Pinch the thumbtip and fingertip right up against the housing so that as you grip the wire your fingers are forcing it back and away from the connector housing. This way, as soon as you prise the locking tab out, the pin will pop backwards and can then be removed quite easily (!). See pics 4 and 5 for the tab that you have to poke at. Some will come out easily, some can be a 'mare.
Once the pin is out, you'll see how much of a gap there is for the coil pack pin to sit in (pic 6). The coil pack pin is usually rather thinner than this gap which is what can cause your misfire problems. We need to tighten this gap up, so, looking at the pin from the other direction (pic 7) you can see the metal tab that we are going to push down and away a bit, thus bending the internal metal of the pin closer together than it currently is. Inset is an idea of the bit you are aiming at (in blue) and a blue line across it showing the angle of the screwdriver blade to achieve a result. Don't go mad, you can't press too hard anyway it's such a fiddly job, but you should be able to get it like in pic 8. You can see the difference in pic 9 between the original big gap and the nice new narrow gap.
Putting it all back together is easy, I promise - everything clicks into place. I recommend doing one wire at a time though so you don't inadvertantly wire your coil packs up the wrong way around!
-Ian