Scirocco Register

Was coming home the other day and the car suddenly juddered for a split second, which was weird (good smooth runner). I was thinking maybe a bit of crap in the fuel. Didn't do it again. Parked up at home, noticed a ticking noise coming from the hood coming from the distributor, turned out the central HT lead from the coil has snapped where it connects to to the distributor, leaving the circular metal bit in the distributor. Lead was lying at 45 degree angle, could see the spark, (that was the ticking noise).

Car was still running fine!

Anyway, was thinking a new set of leads. Then was thinking new dizzy cap. Then was thinking new rotor arm. Then was thinking new plugs. Then was ashamed that I haven't replaced any of these in 20000 - 30000 miles or so.

Had a look earlier, my suspicions were correct. Corrosion on each connection of the dizzy cap, corrosion on the rotor arm, obviously old HT leads (hence the snappage I'm guessing).

Perhaps more worryingly, I've got oil around the no 4 spark plug. I don't think it's coming from the valve cover gasket from what I can see. Could it be the plug crush washer is ineffective now? Should I wipe the oil away, whack new plugs in and see how it goes?

Questions:

I'm out of the loop with parts so forgive me but:
Recommendations for plugs? I think my current ones are Bosch. What about NGK?
I think I'll get the same leads - Bosch with the metal connectors on the end. Are there better ones nowadays I should get?
My dizzy cap is the one with the black plastic surround. I presume I need this one, is Bosch recommended?
Rotor arm just seems standard.

Anyway, here's an attachment pic showing the snapped HT lead and the snapped circular bit in the dizzy hole, the dizzy cap, but more importantly the oily plug area. There is no oil around any of the other plug areas.

Going by the Haynes guide they recommend Champion plugs. Depending on your engine code for the correct type. My FR engine runs very happily on the N7YC.
Your quite right to renew all the rest, once I changed the HT leads, coil etc the starting and running was noticeably better. The only part I haven't changed is the dizzy. Wasn't sure which one to go for either, there are so many!

The only thing to watch out for is buying the correct combination of HT lead terminals, where they connect the coil, distributor cap, and spark plug tops. Earlier distributor caps used DIN socket connections, and later use the M4 pin type and they are not compatible

Later engines were fitted with triple electrode "longlife" spark plugs, which look to be compatible with DX and EX engines from 1984. Multiple brands were available as genuine parts, all interchangeable, with the following parts numbers:

101000005AB: Bosch
101000027AA: NGK
101000001AC: Beru
101000007AB: Champion

The change interval for these triple electrode plugs is 20,000 miles.

The Bosch version in particular is widely available as a genuine part pretty cheaply, eg on ebay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110959543260

My recommendation as used in my daily drive and Mk1 Scirocco

Spark plugs.
https://www.eurocarparts.com/p/bosch-sp ... -408330010

HT leads
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334584638739 ... R8SQr_X1YA

Rotor arm.
https://www.eurocarparts.com/p/bosch-ig ... -405330140

Dissy cap, Bosch ones seems to be harder to get hold of unless someone else knows of where to get one?
I’ve been using this make for the last 12 months and it’s been fine.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191698017311 ... R_6j1_X1YA

Try to clean off the oil (leave the spark plug in to stop dirt getting into the engine) try the new spark plug and see what happens…

Thanks for the parts recommendations everyone, much appreciated.

I'd already kind of sourced the Bosch leads, seems like plugs there's a variety of choice, same with dizzy cap and rotor arm. The leads, however, seem to default back to the Bosch ones with the metal caps.

One question - ignition coil - do you lot bundle that in with the rest or do you just leave that if it's working ok? Some of them seem a bit pricey, I must admit to being on a bit of a budget...Mine is rather old, but seems to work fine. Are these expected to have long lifespans?

^^^ And thanks mark1gls for the suggestion about the oily plug, that's what I was figuring, just whack some new ones in an see what happens over a period of time.

No you don’t need to change the ignition coil unless it’s faulty, mines still the original coil so 315,000 miles and 34 years old and still working….

mark1gls wrote: Sun Oct 09, 2022 7:36 pm No you don’t need to change the ignition coil unless it’s faulty, mines still the original coil so 315,000 miles and 34 years old and still working….

They don't make 'em like they used to

Thanks for the help everyone. Got my parts today and fitted them. Test drive and everything seems fine.

If it helps anyone else, in the end I went for:

Champion triple electrode N7BYC plugs (As per user manual). Tenner all in ;)
Bosch Leads. 34 quid.
Treated myself to Bosch dizzy cap and rotor arm. Found them on ebay. Bit more expensive, but I like to go Bosch etc wherever possible. 30 odd for the cap and around 11 or 12 for the rotor.

I think I did the whole lot for about 90 quid. And back in t'road again.

Will keep an eye out for oil around plug no. 4 in due course. Cleaned it up first though.

All my plugs were a bit oily around the threads, though no.4 was worse. They all had quite brownish healthy looking electrodes though. If no.4 gets oily on the head around it again, I'll make another thread for it.