Driving on a bad ignition coil?

Question

Last night at a friend's house when I started my car the check engine light came on and it started to misfire and shake pretty bad when I was in drive. I drove to Autozone (1 mile) and they read the code and it said I had a bad ignition coil. So I bought the part I needed and drove home about 30 miles (mostly on the freeway). I had it replaced today (0.5 miles away) and the mechanic said I was good to go. I didn't ask him about the catalytic converter, though, which can be damaged from misfires. The check engine light is now off, but I'm wondering if I damaged the catalytic converter at all. Would that be something that could creep back up on me later?

More info: my car is a 2000 Mitsubishi Galant 4 cylinder. And the check engine light was never flashing, it was just solid. I drove about 30 miles in total.

Update:

The misfires were the most noticeable while idling. It seemed to run smoothly at high speeds.

More info: my car is a 2000 Mitsubishi Galant 4 cylinder.  And the check engine light was never flashing, it was just solid.  I drove about 30 miles in total.

thebax2006 · Answer

Use a lower gear and keep the rpm's higher to help burn off any gasoline that may have gotten into the converter. If you don't have NGK or Denso spark plugs you need to get them and put them in. While at the dealer I had 3-4 cylinder vehicles with burnt out coils from running Autolite and Bosch spark plugs.

Anonymous · Answer

Unburnt fuel can potentially damage the cat, but you probably didn't get much fuel that far with a faulty coil. It would only be one cylinder not firing and the tiny ammount of unburnt fuel release from the cylinder would have burnt off in the hot exhaust manifold.

Anonymous · Answer

I think it should see a lot of  highway driving.  A catylitic converter  is a type of after-burner. It gets very hot and burns up whatever it can.  If you do have to get a new CC it does great things for your smog numbers.

Tim · Answer

The catalytic converter damaged by a misfire? You know that's part of the exhaust right that's not going to damage it even if it did you'd here a noticeable difference in how your car sounds

Timbo is here · Answer

There is a good chance that you will have got away with it. they do not damage instantly and will take a little unburned fuel. Fact is though if it is damaged then it just is and you will know when you get your next emissions test

Chuckles · Answer

You cannot tell until the cat fails. In the mean time just keep going.

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Driving on a bad ignition coil?

6 Answers