How To.. Change your coilpacks RB26DETT, RB25DET

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REPLACING COILPACKS - written by Anthony Mcgrath

Okay first of all I'm no mechanic and am in all honesty surprised I didn't manage to burn the car to a cinder in the process described below but as I started doing this swapover for my Splitfire coilpacks I thought "hey why not take some snaps then the other guys can all laugh at my muppetry". However I take no responsibility for damage or explosions or snapped bits, tools, bones and other suchlikes as a result of following my instructions and blah blah yada yada yada!

Reet - first of all, pop bonnet (might wanna refer to owners manual for this one... last time I checked a halfords guide book this kind of thing got 5 stars for complexity). Remove the little bolts that hold in the coilpack covering (10 of em) with a 4mm allen key. You might want to remove the strut brace for a bit more accessibility to the bolts beneath but they're not terrible to get to really.

RB25 owners - the charge intake pipe will need removing from the top of the block - this is just loosening a few jubilee clips and unplugging from the top. Sorry I dont have a picture but if you end up with the block looking like this (ie: no charge intake pipe on top) then your ready lol!



Heres a close up of the breather pipe for you. I found a good pair of grips helped get those clips off otherwise you just end up with shredded fingers if you a pansy like myself. Unclip the securing clip on the left side of the breather pipe and twist up out the way



Next you want to unplug the clip from the back of the amplifier doofer on top (the slatted thing with four bolts... I told you I'm no mechanic!). Also can you see that little black wire fastened to the back left bolt - you need to loosen and unclip this. Finally theres one more plug to the left behind the bit where you unplugged the breather pipe. unplug that too (dont think you have to in hindsite but theres a clip on the wire that connects it the coilpack cover so I did for simplicity)



A tubbit (2quid for 5 from Tesco) proved handy here for storing those little bolts!



Reet - all the bolts and plugs undone the coilpack cover should just come loose and slide out shouldn't it? No! Theres one more plug connected to the underside of the cover. Fiddle about a bit and you'll feel a little clip on the plug that you depress - from there the plug should just come out. The image below shows the underside of the cover and said plug in my sweaty little mitten.



Heres a snap of the coilpacks. Mine seem in pretty good condition actually and I'm gonna pop em up in the for sale section as theres actually nowt wrong with them but I wanted the splitfires as last time I had em put in me ol gtst they just made the car much smoother to drive so...



Quick snap of the splitfires all boxed up too (thanks to Hi5 on GTROC for the sale at a good price and next day delivery too!).



Reet - so time to set about unplugging the coilpacks. I started from the back of the block and worked my way forward but the image here shows the screwdriver with an 8mm socket on the front as it were easier to take a snapshot lol! Simply unbolt the two screws holding each coilpack in, unplug the plug and gently pull out (should make a satisfying "pop" when it does come out of the locating rail bracket wotsit)...

NB - try to AVOID using a screwdriver to remove these screws as the tops aren't very strong at all and I found one was starting to core when I tried the screwdriver. I quickly switched to this 8mm socket method and it was much more effective.

NB - keep tight hold of those screws too!! You dont want them dropping into somewhere you might never see again. Take your time and if you find your fingers shaking - take ten minutes as the fact your bent over the block is cutting circulation all around the body so have a minute... cars not going anywhere hehe!



As you can see - one in and plugged in and just working on installing the 2nd. Try to remove and replace one at a time as opposed to taking all six out and swapping them over - it might get a little confusing as not all of them plug in the right way. Hard to explain without the correct terminology but you'll see when you tackle it lol!



Two of them in, screwed down and the plugs back on each one. Its a real shame the wiring loom here doesn't come with the coilpacks in a nice bright blue.. not that it would matter as once the cover is on you dont see the bloody things anyhow!



I thought it important to show this pic - this is me DOUBLE CHECKING the plugs are on correctly BEFORE I replaced the cover. It kinda sounds obvious and it er.. is lol but as I double checked them all I found a couple hadn't quite 'clipped' into place on the plug - not something I want working itself loose a week down the line so just thought it worth mentioning - if you look at the pic above you can see that the 2nd plug I installed HASN'T got the plug correctly clipped on so I'm glad I did this!



And finally - all 6 of them in place. Fitting the cover was a simple process of putting the plug that goes into the underside of the cover back in place (you'll hear it click into place when it goes in), bolting down evenly with the allen key bolts, adding earthing wire to the amplifier doofer and connecting breather pipes up! Jobs a good un - make sure all tools are removed and YOU DONT DROP THAT BLOODY ALLEN KEY LIKE I DID and spent half an hour waiting for it to plink out the bottom of the car!!



Fire her up and take her out for a spin. I noticed right away the car just felt really smooth on these coilpacks and it gave me a shock when it warmed up and I hoofed it up the mway as it just seemed to have much smoother power delivery higher up the rev range and better lower down too which made slow moving traffic a bit easier Also added advantage of knowing they'll last a shedload longer than the standard Nissan items too!

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