A well-functioning ignition coil is essential for a smooth car ride. It ensures that enough power is provided to the spark plug for starting the engine and running it properly while driving.
Driving with a bad ignition coil is not recommended and it can be dangerous due to the following reasons:
Loss of Power and Increased Vibrations
One of the biggest symptoms of a failed ignition coil is a loss of engine power. You will experience sudden and drastic loss of engine power while driving with a bad ignition coil.
Over time, as the ignition coil gets worse, it can impact more than one of the car’s cylinders. This can cause you to lose control on the road while driving.
You will also experience the car vibrating and shaking excessively which can distract you and make you lose control in some cases.
Loss of Engine Spark
A bad or damaged ignition coil can cause loss of engine spark.
This can cause the car’s cylinders to misfire. When the ignition coil starts to fail, these problems will not be too prominent. They will occur occasionally.
However, as the problem intensifies and the ignition coil continues to fail more, the occurrence of misfires will increase drastically. This can be dangerous while driving as it can cause the car to lose power and control which is essential for safe driving.
Imbalanced Air/Fuel Mixture
Driving a car with a bad ignition coil can cause an imbalanced air/fuel mixture.
This can be problematic, and you should be careful while driving your car with a bad ignition coil. There can be other reasons for an imbalanced air/fuel mixture.
If the fuel injector of your car is dirty or clogged or it has a leak, it can cause low pressure that will affect all your car’s cylinders. Misfires caused by an imbalanced air/fuel mixture appear suddenly.
They are also more detectable and prominent when driving at low speeds or idling.
Intermittent Misfires
When you drive with a bad ignition coil, you may experience intermittent misfiring.
This means that the car will not always misfire but do so intermittently. The misfire may happen more regularly in cold weather or when you are carrying more load in the car. Intermittent misfiring happens without any pattern or predictability.
Such problems are difficult to analyze. You should take your car immediately to a good mechanic and get it checked when you experience intermittent misfires.