CEL P0351 Ignition Coil "A" Primary Control Circuit/Open

[solidONE]

Originally Posted by skye67

Ha Ha ha, out of warranty, mods most likely voided warranty any way. Modded my car with less than 2500 miles. I never intended to use the warranty anyway. I would not trust the grease monkeys to touch my car. I do all my own work. I have bought four Subaru's from the local dealer, and they like me enuff to get me deals on parts. Especially if there is a TSB or recall. And I never asked or suggested for anyone to pay for it.
BTW whats with your attitude?

Then you should call the parts department and see if they can give a discount on a replacement for a prematurely failing coil. You might be projecting a bit on the attitude thing. You seem to be the one that's pretty agitated for whatever reason looking at your posts. I'm just stating the obvious in response to your comments about subaru/toyota's quality and service and the "spend $$$$$...new car...parts swapping bitch.." thing. LOL You're preaching to the choir with that one. No hate, brah... no hate.

[skye67]

Originally Posted by solidONE

Then you should call the parts department and see if they can give a discount on a replacement for a prematurely failing coil. You might be projecting a bit on the attitude thing. You seem to be the one that's pretty agitated for whatever reason looking at your posts. I'm just stating the obvious in response to your comments about subaru/toyota's quality and service and the "spend $$$$$...new car...parts swapping bitch.." thing. LOL You're preaching to the choir with that one. No hate, brah... no hate.

Sorry, no offence, Anyway.
Heat does strongly looks like a problem. But more likely is how the car is driven. Shock or mod, the one thing that MOSTLY have in common. Is they drive their cars hard. Side note, I have yet to track. But, there are people who do not like to ride with me. Anyway, A number of people have had, or got heat lowering methods. Some work, some don't. A number of people keep replacing coils with the same problem reoccurring. This all points to something different. It,s not the coils, but maybe the wiring harness(which was mentioned once fix the problem),, or?????
Just thinking out loud.

[steven0000]

Came here to share my experience.

2013 FR-S with 26k miles.

At ~16K miles I got the P0351. Ordered a replacement ignition coil and installed. Less than 1K miles later P0351 code again when over 5K RPM. Three easy drives and the code disappears as others have said. Went to the dealer with the TSBs from the forums and got the ECU reflash out of warranty for free, and quoted $600 for a coil pack replacement even though I gave him the part number and informed him of the replacement. Ha, no.

Ran the car over 5k rpm out of the dealership and got P0351 again. Went home, took coil from cylinder #1 and swapped it with coil from cylinder #3. At 26k I get the P0351 again. I am in Georgia and the car was fine throughout the rest of summer, into winter, fine all winter and now the code as we move into spring. Temps were about 80F for the first time since last summer and I got the code after a pull to redline. I'm going to try swapping plugs from cylinder #1 to #3 next. If I still experience the problem I will check the injector seals. I bothered to pull my plug in cylinder #1 when I was swapping the coils and it looked fine.

I believe this is a heat related issue, so I'll heat tape wrap my coil as well to see if that helps. I may also look into 3D printing a funnel from somewhere up front that blows outside air directly over the coil. On another note, does anyone know how do other subarus combat this problem? Do other subarus have lower compression which makes this a non issue?

[solidONE]

Probably a good idea to replace the coil(s). I dont think a visual inspection is enough to determine whether if the coils bad. You'd have to test the resistance in the coil using a multimeter to see if they're within specifications.

[pgranberg11]

Originally Posted by solidONE

Probably a good idea to replace the coil(s). I dont think a visual inspection is enough to determine whether if the coils bad. You'd have to test the resistance in the coil using a multimeter to see if they're within specifications.

I came over from this thread: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...=1#post2899875

I ended up getting a P0353 instead of the 1. I have a JDL 3" over front pipe that had a nasty leak that I can't seem to fix. I believe heat has to play a role since I never got this code even on the track. The extra heat from the exhaust leak was shooting up towards the coil on cylinder three (passenger side further back). The weird thing was I only received just the CEL and not CEL and slip light. Do you happen to know the specs for testing for resistance? I would do a datalog and see if I'm knocking, but I think it'll be hard for me to get the car into track conditions not on track, and I especially prefer not to be knocking. I may just buy a replacement coil for peace of mind.

Edit for thorough engine modifications and time of CEL event:
kraftwerks SC, tomei UEL header, JDL 3" ultra quiet over front pipe, perrin resonated 3". running about e75 at the time. I was on the highway maybe around 4-5krpm taking an off ramp slightly aggressive (partial throttle) after a good trip from the border of WI/IL back to Chicago, pretty normal day temp around 70.

Dumb question, has anyone tried tracking without the skid plate at the bottom of the car to reduce engine bay temps? Or will this cause unnecessary drag underneath the car reducing times? I don't track for times, so I figured I'd ask to see if any one has bothered to do this.

[MurderousPandas]

Heat has been know to destroy coilpacks. #1 is common because the front passenger side cylinder has a lot of room for heat from the header to build up, but where the overpipe is could be another spot to worry about. P035X and possibly disabled cruise control will happen, high RPM will usually trigger this problem, low RPM's are usually okay unless it's totally fried. I think dealerships currently have better pricing than auto part stores, or at least they did last year.

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[solidONE]

Originally Posted by pgranberg11

I came over from this thread: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showt...=1#post2899875

I ended up getting a P0353 instead of the 1. I have a JDL 3" over front pipe that had a nasty leak that I can't seem to fix. I believe heat has to play a role since I never got this code even on the track. The extra heat from the exhaust leak was shooting up towards the coil on cylinder three (passenger side further back). The weird thing was I only received just the CEL and not CEL and slip light. Do you happen to know the specs for testing for resistance? I would do a datalog and see if I'm knocking, but I think it'll be hard for me to get the car into track conditions not on track, and I especially prefer not to be knocking. I may just buy a replacement coil for peace of mind.

Edit for thorough engine modifications and time of CEL event:
kraftwerks SC, tomei UEL header, JDL 3" ultra quiet over front pipe, perrin resonated 3". running about e75 at the time. I was on the highway maybe around 4-5krpm taking an off ramp slightly aggressive (partial throttle) after a good trip from the border of WI/IL back to Chicago, pretty normal day temp around 70.

Dumb question, has anyone tried tracking without the skid plate at the bottom of the car to reduce engine bay temps? Or will this cause unnecessary drag underneath the car reducing times? I don't track for times, so I figured I'd ask to see if any one has bothered to do this.

Oddly, there doesnt seem to be specs on the ignition coils in the shop manual, only the harness. According to the manual, if you're getting 11-14v with resistance under 1 ohm at the harness connector and still getting the same DTC it says to just replace the coil, if I'm reading it correctly.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12135

[pgranberg11]

Originally Posted by solidONE

Oddly, there doesnt seem to be specs on the ignition coils in the shop manual, only the harness. According to the manual, if you're getting 11-14v with resistance under 1 ohm at the harness connector and still getting the same DTC it says to just replace the coil, if I'm reading it correctly.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12135

Wow really useful link. I'll be sure to bookmark it. I went through all 27 pages of the thread and noticed someone posted a thermal image of the engine bay where these coil packs are. I believe the same person mentioned a lot of the heat gets trapped by the ECU bracket. Would something like this alleviate the heat?

http://www.ft86speedfactory.com/velo...l#.WQNAbWkrKpo

Or is at the point where basically anything that dissolves the heat is best to do. I am contemplating on getting the Velox Hood vents, but I really want to try to avoid cutting my hood. I suppose if that's what I have to do.. then I'll do so.

[solidONE]

Do whatever you can within reason to help cool off the right bank or shield the coils from heat. It can only help, I suppose.

[Exrald]

What ignition coils do you guys usually use? OEM or aftermarket?

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[Exrald]

I've been getting CEL lately for the same code. I've just been ignoring it, but it's been showing up more frequently. Do you think I should change it now? And would it cause more trouble if I wait a little bit longer?

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[strat61caster]

Originally Posted by Exrald

What ignition coils do you guys usually use? OEM or aftermarket?

I've only done OE, there was a aftermarket that was supposed to be more durable but it was way more expensive and people still reported failures.

If there's an aftermarket that's cheaper or more durable post it up, I've only seen OE at around $105-$120.

Originally Posted by Exrald

I've been getting CEL lately for the same code. I've just been ignoring it, but it's been showing up more frequently. Do you think I should change it now? And would it cause more trouble if I wait a little bit longer?

I haven't seen any long term damage from leaving it for a bit but could be wrong. If you've changed sparkplugs on any car before then you can DIY this.

[MurderousPandas]

Originally Posted by Exrald

I've been getting CEL lately for the same code. I've just been ignoring it, but it's been showing up more frequently. Do you think I should change it now? And would it cause more trouble if I wait a little bit longer?

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I used OEM, much more affordable and works well. I would replace it. For now, your ECU will make up for it by cutting power, without the ECU i'm sure you'd hear a misfire and it'd get choppy in the top end. Longterm, the coilpack would probably fail, rendering that cyclinder useless and you losing even more power.
There was one guy who had a cylinder not firing, i think gas just went straight into the exhaust, and eventually the rear of his car went in flames. I forgot his exact problem, but he never got a CEL from what i remember.

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[Exrald]

Originally Posted by MurderousPandas

I used OEM, much more affordable and works well. I would replace it. For now, your ECU will make up for it by cutting power, without the ECU i'm sure you'd hear a misfire and it'd get choppy in the top end. Longterm, the coilpack would probably fail, rendering that cyclinder useless and you losing even more power.
There was one guy who had a cylinder not firing, i think gas just went straight into the exhaust, and eventually the rear of his car went in flames. I forgot his exact problem, but he never got a CEL from what i remember.

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I ordered a pack from AutoZone. They got 20% off sale, so I pretty much got it for cheap... My friend's gonna help me swape coils, but we don't know how difficult it is yet... I hope it'll be easy.

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