TECHTALK

in association with

NO, ITS NOT JUST A SPARK PLUG

IF PEOPLE WERE ASKED TO NAME ONE ENGINE COMPONENT WHICH APPEARS
NOT TO HAVE CHANGED VERY MUCH IN RECENT HISTORY, THEY WOULD ALMOST
CERTAINLY NAME THE SPARK PLUG. YET APPEARANCES ARE DECEPTIVE: THE
TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENTS HAVE BEEN CONSIDERABLE, AND TODAY MORE THAN
EVER, EFFICIENT ENGINE OPERATION DEPENDS ON RUNNING PRECISELY THE RIGHT
KIND OF PLUG.
Just consider for a moment. Todays new
European-market cars have to meet at
least Euro 3 emission limits, and several
national markets offer fiscal incentives
lower tax for cars meeting the very tight
Euro 4. At the same time, the car
manufacturers are worried about fuel
consumption because of the need to bring
corporate-average CO2 emissions below
140 grams/km (equivalent to around
47mpg) by 2008. Achieving all this
demands very careful engine design. We
are for example seeing the very rapid
spread of direct petrol injection, and the
computer-calculated control of airflow
within the cylinder so that the air/fuel mix
is not only near-perfect, but also that it is
in exactly the right place when combustion
begins. And having gone to all this trouble,
engine designers are not going to specify

any old spark plug even less so when

consumers are also expecting spark plugs
to last longer and longer, as part of the

Semi-Surface Discharge: Carbon on the insulator

nose will reduce the overall resistence between
centre electrode and metal shell, possibly causing
a mis-spark. This design forces the spark to
discharge across the end of the insulator nose,
burning away the carbon and regaining the
necessary resistence value.

general trend of stretching service

intervals.
These days, therefore, an engine
design team will work closely with a spark
plug manufacturer from an early stage. The
task of physically fitting the plug within the
combustion chamber and ensuring the
spark occurs in exactly the right place
within the combustion chamber has now
become a crucial requirement. This
however is only part of the story. The
spark needs to be totally reliable, because
a misfire can not only send emissions off
the scale, but very quickly damage the
catalytic converter as raw fuel burns where
it is not supposed to. In other words, the
spark needs to be extremely strong
enough to have something in hand when
facing the most difficult conditions, for
example during a cold start and possibly
with fuel of marginal quality. Some of that
strength will come from upstream in the
ignition system, hence the still growing
popularity of direct coil-on-plug ignition
systems, but a lot of it will be down to the
design of the plug itself, as will resistance
to plug fouling.

DEAR DAVE
I have a problem with my Renault Safrane
2.2. About three months ago the car
refused to start. My local garage traced the
fault to an earthed-out starter motor live
feed, which had burnt out the starter wire. It
was rewired but since then theres been a
progressive loss of power, accompanied by
slight juddering, and now the cars virtually
undriveable.
Vehicle ECUs are very sensitive to power
surges and high electrical loads, and my
guess is that the short-out fault has
damaged the sensor supply circuit out of
the ECU to the various control sensors
on the engine. It is possible to get this
unit repaired by an electronics specialist.
As a mechanical garage, we dont usually
take on electronic work but on this occasion
we didnt really have a choice. After

replacing the head on a Fiat Punto T reg

1.2, the air bag light came on and stayed
on. We have not been anywhere near the air
bag or pretensioners.
Fiat, in all its wisdom, earthed the air bag
ECU to the inlet manifold and the earth
wire does tend to become brittle. When
you removed the earth from the
manifold, it could have broken inside the
wires insulation. Try replacing this wire
back to the bulkhead and see if that
cures the problem, but you will need to
visit the main dealer to reset the fault
codes.
We are at our wits end with a Ford Fiesta
1.1 N reg single point injection. It has a
good spark and fuel pressure, but no
injection pulse. Investigation of wiring with
an oscilloscope shows a good crank signal

Motor Industry Magazine www.motor.org.uk Dec/Jan 2003/4 32

into the EDIS ignition module and a good

ignition signal to the coils. If carb cleaner is
sprayed down the inlet, the engine will fire
up. There is no square waveform signal from
pins one or three from the EDIS module
feeding the fuelling ECU. This was assumed
to be the problem and the EDIS module was
replaced, but to no avail. Whats going on?
Every thing has its feeds where it is
supposed to; the EDIS module has all its
lives and earths and a signal from the crank
sensor; and pins one and three show
continuity through to the fuelling ECU. But
no signal is being generated by the EDIS.
To answer this, lets run through a
simplified version of how the system
works. The EDIS module first receives an
analogue signal from the crankshaft
sensor. It then converts this signal into a

More recently various advanced

technologies have been introduced by the
spark plug manufacturers to meet these
challenges. New and improved materials are
one way to go, even if they bring problems
of their own to production. NGK for
example now produces plugs with
electrodes made from very fine wire; in
some applications this is as small as
0.4mm. The wire is an alloy of platinum and
iridium, very expensive but extremely
durable. Questions of cost apart, how do
you attach such a wire so that there is no
chance of it falling off? NGK found the
answer in a new kind of ultra-precise laserwelding that produces the formation of an
alloy which is particularly effective in
securing the small precious metal chips to
the centre and ground electrodes.
Of course, the very fine wire also brings
a number of technical advantages. The
electrode stays sharp and able to fire
reliably over a wide gap, which among other
things makes for steadier idling at lower
speed. An alternative technology is that of
the semi-surface discharge plug, a type
once relatively familiar in powerful two-

NGKs new Hybrid-Type spark plug was developed

exclusively for Audis new 2.0 FSI engine to achieve
Audis demanding requirement for high spark
energy, reliability and durability. It is fitted
exclusively as OE on the new Audi A3.

stroke engines but now finding its place in

the latest generation of plugs for direct
petrol injection engines. For example, the
NGK plug specified by Audi for their new
2.0 FSI engine in the recently launched A3
uses a hybrid design that employs a
combination of a fine wire precious metal
centre electrode, conventional shape
ground electrode and two additional semisurface ground electrodes.
In fact even the most basic aspects of
the plug have improved almost out of
recognition. Ground electrodes with
copper cores for better heat dissipation,
longer life and to guard against
detonation? Not enough these days
NGKs latest plugs have a three-layer
ground electrode design to resist bi-metal
distortion. And the high purity alumina
ceramic used for the insulator is by no
means the kind of porcelain that makes
crockery.
It all adds up to a component which is
more special than it looks and is still
remarkable value for money in relation to
the job it now has to do. Just make sure you
use the right one

SILENT WIPE
digital square waveform and sends it to
pin 56 of the EEC IV ECU. This modifies
the signal according to engine
temperature etc. and sends it back to the
EDIS module via pin 36. The EDIS
module then uses this modified signal to
adjust the ignition timing. The problem
you are having concerns the lack of
digital signal on pin 1 off the ignition
module and pin 56 of the ECU. This is
where the fault lies. The shielded wire
that connect these pins has to be faulty more than likely the wire has earthed out
to the shield thus suppressing the digital
signal. It is not enough just to check for
continuity from one pin to another; you
must also make sure these pins have no
continuity to earth.
DAVE PEACOCK

Federal-Moguls new Champion Aerovantage range of windscreen wipers features a series

of innovations including a blade replacement reminder and an 'easi-clip' to help with the
fitting process through a larger bridge window. The clip removes the need to fit an adapter
on 98% of applications.
Aerovantage also uses an integrated spindle, replacing the conventional rivet design,
which minimises angular play and increases integral strength and corrosion resistance.
For silent performance, Champion has reduced friction with a new rubber coating that
combines graphite with its own unique 'Bromination' process.

LUCAS LINE-UP
From Lucas come latest catalogues covering rotating
machines, bulbs and fuelling and emissions.
New to the F&E publication is a range of new,
rather than remanufactured, replacement air mass
meters, along with an all-makes range of exhaust gas
recirculation valves.

Motor Industry Magazine www.motor.org.uk Dec/Jan 2003/4 33

TECHTALK

in association with

BACK TO BASICS WITH AUTO-SOLVE

IGNITION PRIMARY CIRCUITS
The primary ignition is so called as it forms
the first part of the ignition circuit. The
primary circuit is used to provide the initial
stage towards the secondary High Tension
(HT) output.
The primary circuit has evolved from the
basic contact breaker points and condenser
to the distributorless and coil per cylinder
systems in common use today. The basic
origin of all of these systems evolves around
the magnetic inductance principle. The only
system to differ from this principle is
capacitive discharge, whose operation will be
detailed in a later topic.
This principle is based around a
magnetic field (or flux) being produced when
the coil's earth circuit is completed by either
the contacts or the amplifier providing the
coil negative terminal with a path to earth.
When this circuit is complete, a magnetic
field is produced and builds until the coil's
magnetic field becomes maximised or
saturated. At the pre-determined point of
ignition, the coil's earth is removed and the
magnetic field or flux collapses across the
coils 250 to 350 primary windings, which in
turn induces a voltage of 200 to 350 volts.
This induced voltage will be determined by
the following factors:

The number of turns in the coils

primary winding

The strength of the magnetic field

The rate of collapse, which is

determined by the speed of the
switching of the earth path
The number of turns within the coils
primary is preset from manufacture;
however, the strength of the magnetic field,
which is proportionate to the current within
the circuit and the speed of the switching,
can be seen in Fig 1.0

The current within the electronic ignition

example shown sharply rises to 6 amps, at
which point the current is held until the
earth circuit is removed. The switching
speed can be seen by the angle of the
vertical line at the end of the trace. Any
delay or slow switching will be seen as a
sloping line. Any compromise in the
switching speed will result in a lower
induced voltage.
The height of the induced voltage line
can be seen in Fig 1.1. In this particular
instance its maximum voltage is 326 volts.
This is a result of the magnetic flux passing
quickly across the coils primary windings. It
is important to test this voltage as a low
secondary HT output could result from a
low primary voltage.

FIG 1.0

FIG 1.2

One of the many compromises with

contact ignition is the fact that the coils
saturation time will reduce with increasing
engine speed. In the illustration shown in
Fig 1.2, the engine is running at
approximately 1000 rpm and the points
are closed for 16.3 milliseconds. This
results in an induced voltage of 286.3
volts. As the engine speed is increased to
3000 rpm the coils available time to fully
saturate will be reduced pro-rata.
Illustration Fig 1.3 shows that the time
available to charge the coil has now been
reduced to 5.6 milliseconds. As a result, the
induced voltage has been reduced to
275.4 volts and the coils HT output
reduced accordingly.

FIG 1.1
FIG 1.3
DWELL PERIOD
Dwell is measured as an angle: with contact
ignition, the points gap determines the
dwell angle. The definition of contact
ignition dwell is: 'the number of degrees of
distributor rotation with the contacts in the
closed position'.
As an example, a 4 cylinder engine will
have a dwell of approximately 45 degrees,
which is 50% of one cylinders complete
primary cycle.

Motor Industry Magazine www.motor.org.uk Dec/Jan 2003/4 34

The dwell period on an engine with

electronic ignition is controlled by the
current limiting circuit within the amplifier
or Electronic Control Module (ECM). The
dwell on a variable dwell or constant energy
system will be seen to expand as the engine
speed increases, compensating for the
shorter time period.
The term 'constant energy' refers to
the available voltage produced by the coil.
This, regardless of engine speed, will remain
constant as opposed to contact ignition
where an increase in engine speed means
the contacts are closed for a shorter time
period. The coils saturation time can be
seen in Fig 1.4, where the time available to
saturate the coil is a constant 3.0
milliseconds regardless of the engine
speed. The saturation time is considerably
lower than that of a contact system due to
the coils supply voltage being
approximately double that of a ballasted
contact system and the coils primary

resistance approximately halved. This will

result in a far higher current, saturating the
coil with amperage that would not be
possible on a contact system.

the result is a different matter. This simple

example shows the importance of testing any
switching circuits earth path with the aid of
an oscilloscope. An ideal earth would show
an almost flat line; however, in practical terms
the voltage may creep up as high as 0.3
volts. An old electrical law stated that we can
lose up to 0.5 volts on any live circuit while
the earth must remain below 0.25 volts. In all
practicality, common sense must prevail so
try to minimise the dynamic resistance in any
important earth return circuit.

FIG 1.4
As with all electrical circuits, it is important
for the technician to check the condition of
the earth circuit. This cannot, however, be
done by simply checking for good continuity
using a multimeter. As an example, imagine
an earth wire that has broken and is down to
the last strand of copper wire. When testing
for continuity, it will show next to zero
resistance. Pass a current along the wire and

FIG 1.5
In Fig 1.5 we can see that while the coils

earth circuit is complete (the length of the

dwell period) there is a small volt drop that
increases as the current builds. In this
example the circuit is increasing in current
until the earth is removed. A poor earth will
result in an increase in height to the earth
ramps and a decision must be made as to
whether the earth circuit requires any
remedial rectification.
All the example waveforms used were
recorded using a PC based oscilloscope
loaned by www.picotech.com. Other
manufacturers equipment will have
different voltage ranges but the resultant
picture should be very similar. Please
remember that using a higher voltage range
will result in the waveform appearing to
have a lower amplitude, although the
overall voltage will be the same.
In the next issue we will be looking at
the components that initiate the coils
primary circuit: the pick-up, crank angle
sensor or an output signal from the
ECM. We will also look at the waveforms
required from the different components
and the way in which they are formed.

COMPRESSED GUIDE
Compressed air products and systems supplier Thomas Wright/Thorite Group has produced an updated
version of its free Pipe Up booklet. Its a guide to workshop airline systems, both ring main and spur line,
for compressors up to 15HP.
Copies are available on 0800 0345850.

EMISSION CONTROL
Forte is targeting service workshops with an Emission Control awareness campaign following the
Department of Transports drive to step up its fixed penalty notice road side emission tests.
A range of marketing materials are being dis-tributed among indepen-dent garages and fran-chised
dealerships to help them educate motorists about the benefits of an emission control service as part of
their normal service routine.

Motor Industry Magazine www.motor.org.uk Dec/Jan 2003/4 35