condensor again

[Ron Kwas]

Arcturus; If they have had no other changes to the OE Ign Sys, and replacement fixes the issue (until Condenser fails again) in the (too) near future, I don't expect your cars have an "underlying problem", but 12 month/two occurrences is certainly an unacceptable failure rate...I presume it was confirmed by replacement only...unfortunately, that doesn't give much clarification as to the failure mode. I too had a Condenser (authentic Bosch part) fail after restart of a long-term parked vehicle. The car would start fine, but not rev...suggesting a somewhat complicated internal, voltage related breakdown, but only under certain conditions (raised RPMs). I suspect an ingress-of-moisture-issue, because the car was exhibiting no such symptoms when stored...I would love to see Breakdown Voltage test results on those failed pieces...but this would require highly specialized test equipment...

Faust; Thanks for reference, but I have no good, simple answers here...I do note that no name, inexpensive e-bay, are often china sh*t goods, not even worth their low cost, when they totally trash the reliability of the vehicle like that!...I recommend buying authentic Bosch brand parts, only from a reputable sources (which can trace supplies back to the manufacturers) ...I'm sure there are counterfeit trash parts out there, sold even in counterfeit packaging, and I wouldn't be surprised if these have flooded the market and are responsible for this...it should be open hunting season/no bag limit on those suppliers!

Clan; "you only have to look at one to see how frail they are compared" can you elaborate or post some pix?

Maybe contacting Bosch directly, and asking them what they know about this, or sending them some failed units for post-morten, is in order...I'll put it on my to-do list...

Cheers