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Mon Aug 05, 2019 2:20 am

Am I better off getting an old used Bosch blue coil or are the ones like Wolfsburg west are selling good too?

Mon Aug 05, 2019 4:53 am

just make sure whatever you get is epoxy filled, not oil filled....if you shake it and hear it slosh, send it back...bosch made blue coils both ways and the oil filled ones had a high failure rate

Mon Aug 05, 2019 12:58 pm

This is the one you want: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2132647

Mon Aug 05, 2019 1:24 pm

You can also consider Pertronix coils. They come with 3ohm primaries like stock and are rated to a higher secondary voltage (40Kv). Will they actually put out that voltage, probably not, but the stock Bosch coil was only rated to less than 20Kv. I’d think they should do better than stock.
https://www.summitracing.com/oh/parts/pnx-40611/overview/
Since they are new and have a warranty you are probably better off than buying a used Bosch coil... unless you just want a “blue” coil. :wink:

In case you are interested, the Pertronix also comes in a “chrome” version for the same price... that will make your car “go faster”!! :P :shock:

Mon Aug 05, 2019 1:34 pm

ashman40 wrote: You can also consider Pertronix coils. They come with 3ohm primaries like stock and are rated to a higher secondary voltage (40Kv). Will they actually put out that voltage, probably not, but the stock Bosch coil was only rated to less than 20Kv. I’d think they should do better than stock.
https://www.summitracing.com/oh/parts/pnx-40611/overview/
Since they are new and have a warranty you are probably better off than buying a used Bosch coil... unless you just want a “blue” coil. :wink:

In case you are interested, the Pertronix also comes in a “chrome” version for the same price... that will make your car “go faster”!! :P :shock:

Bosch produces these coils to date and provide a 2 year warranty on their new parts.

Wed Aug 07, 2019 5:53 am

If the Bosch color blue is what you want your coil to be (not best choice for running) get an after market coil and paint it! Don't waste you money on a "bosch Blue" newer aftermarket coils are much better designed and take the heat better as well. You will enjoy many more miles between failures than with the "blue Bosch"

Olnick

Wed Aug 07, 2019 9:34 am

olnick wrote: If the Bosch color blue is what you want your coil to be (not best choice for running) get an after market coil and paint it! Don't waste you money on a "bosch Blue" newer aftermarket coils are much better designed and take the heat better as well. You will enjoy many more miles between failures than with the "blue Bosch"

Olnick

I've not had any issues with my coils. Bosch is still the best.

There are many counterfeits being made. Where are you purchasing yours?

Wed Aug 07, 2019 12:07 pm

heimlich wrote: olnick wrote: If the Bosch color blue is what you want your coil to be (not best choice for running) get an after market coil and paint it! Don't waste you money on a "bosch Blue" newer aftermarket coils are much better designed and take the heat better as well. You will enjoy many more miles between failures than with the "blue Bosch"

Olnick

I've not had any issues with my coils. Bosch is still the best.

There are many counterfeits being made. Where are you purchasing yours?

I have 8 years on my epoxy filled bosch blue coil. I got mine from aircooled.net

Wed Aug 07, 2019 1:07 pm

I have at least 3 with over 2 years on them.

Wed Aug 07, 2019 4:48 pm

heimlich wrote: There are many counterfeits being made. Where are you purchasing yours?
THIS is the challenge, isn't it. You know you want a Bosch 00-012 part#. But you can't just order one and expect the proper coil with 3-ohm resistance. Even if you can get a "real" Bosch coil it could be one of the Bosch coils that didn't have the correct internal ballast resistors. These were still Bosch but just not the correct ones for ACVWs. Not only do you need to navigate away from conterfeits, but you need to confirm it is the correct "real" Bosch part.

As far as I've seen, there are no fake Pertronix coils out there (maybe there are, but I've not heard this is a problem), but I can see from the specs that the epoxy filled coil has the correct internal ballast resistor.

There are also other coils out there that could even be better than Bosch or Pertronix based on their specs.
I bought a coil like this one from Summit Racing years ago:
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-g5220/overview/
It may have been the same one, but one of the key specs is not listed on their page... the secondary:primary winding ratio. This ratio directly contributes to the secondary output voltage. Larger winding ration = higher secondary voltage for the same input voltage.
For the Pertronix coil above the winding ratio is 115:1 and produces a rated 40,000v. This Summit Racing coil is rated at 60,000v and the one I had had more than a 200:1 winding ratio. The downside of these extra windings is larger size. The chrome coil is physically larger both in length and diameter than a Bosch or Pertronix coil. Also, the coil only has a 1.5ohm internal ballast resistor, but it comes with an (ugly) external resistor that adds another 1.5ohms to get you to 3.0ohms.

In my case I used this chrome coil in a CDI multi-spark ignition system which injected 300v pulses into the primary side of the coil and allows the winding to raise that 300V to around 60,000V in the secondary! It worked really well.

The point is, get a good quality coil that has the minimum specs you need (3-ohm primary) and you will be fine. Bosch has a good track record... when you can get your hands on the correct coil. But you don't have to go with only Bosch or VW. The canister type coil has been around for nearly 100years with multiple improvements made over the decades. While outdated by today's standards they are simple and reliable... even when they aren't made by Bosch.

Wed Aug 07, 2019 5:27 pm

Pertronix Flamethrower coils are far better above 5000 RPM's than the Bosch blue coil. They are cheaper too.

Wed Aug 07, 2019 6:01 pm

Not cheap but they are out there.

Wed Aug 07, 2019 8:13 pm

ashman40 wrote: heimlich wrote: There are many counterfeits being made. Where are you purchasing yours?
THIS is the challenge, isn't it. You know you want a Bosch 00-012 part#. But you can't just order one and expect the proper coil with 3-ohm resistance. Even if you can get a "real" Bosch coil it could be one of the

That's a pretty good deal on summitracing.

I went through quite a few requests to Bosch to get the right part. On one of the orders they sent me the silver looking one which also has the same part number.

In the Bosch coil, you are looking for the stamp on the bottom, the stickers, the color, and also the pins on each connection along with the mounting bracket. If it doesn't come with all of those it is incorrect.