Here goes. As you may have noticed, I live in the frozen north and, not being a pawn of credit card companies, I am limited as to who I can order from. Now, I have studied the original debate over the most reliable inexpensive coils vs. BHR coils and done some local research. This has resulted in the following finding. It seems BWD and Intermotor are owned / controlled by Standard Motor Products. In addition to the coils branded BWD/Intermotor, they also market coils under their Blue Streak brand name. Comparing the prices the BWD coils retail here for $57.00 each and the Blue Streak for $48.00 each, both available for local pickup less than 5 miles from either my home or place of business.

Now the $64,000. question: Has anyone had any experience or seen any comparative results for these 2 brands. Logic tells me that 2 units made by/for the same company marketed with lengthy warranties (Blue Streak is 3 year/80,00 km) should be of equivalent quality. But , my logic has failed me on occasion so any feedback would be appreciated.

 

I got mine at autozone, life time warranty.

I plan to change them when mileage or lap times drop off.

They were $29 US each.

 

There's the hitch...no Autozone or Advance Auto here and, to order from either is a non-starter as I don't do credit cards. As if that weren't enough, Advance says right on their website that while they ship free in US, they don't ship internationally (like to me). That leaves me with local (Canadian) sellers, only and none seem to offer specials on what I need.

Story of my life

 

I have a strong suspicion (but no proof) that the higher priced BWD coils ($50-60 each instead of $30-40 each) are one of the later coil revisions (B or C). The only "issue" with BWD coils in the lower price range is that you still have to expect to change them out every 20-30k, more likely to be closer to 20k than 30k. I would suspect that the higher priced BWD coils would last somewhat longer, but I haven't heard of anyone testing them out yet to know how far, etc...

If I was in your shoes, I wouldn't worry about purchasing the BWD ones you have available locally, even if it didn't have a warranty. Since it does, you are covered against any immediate problems, so it's just a matter of watching for long-term breakdown, just like any other coil.

 

That's kind of what I expected. Like I said, the Blue Streak seems to be made by the same company and, with a 3 yr/80,000km warranty, I think I will give them a shot and apply the difference in price to the also higher-priced NGK wire set (Prices vary from a low of $57. to a high of $92.....Talk about having to assume the position )

 

Mysterion,
I agree with your logic that both brands should be of equivalent quality. I was thinking that with as easy as coils are to change out, from what I have seen. Is that when it comes time to change them out, drive on down across the border to Buffalo with tools in hand and get them in the US and change them out then and there. If I remember my motorcycle trips through that area, you are pretty close.
Except I just checked the currency converter and what you would save getting them in the US would be spent in fuel. LOL but any excuse for a road trip is a good excuse. IMHO

 

Well. it wasn't a bad idea but I already considered that when I was looking at the Advance Auto site and saw they had a store in Niagara Falls NY, which is even closer. However, I don't have a current passport and getting one is more expense and aggravation to add to the equation. That's why I figure I will try the Blue Streak, pocket the difference and hang on to the best 2 of the old coils as emergency spares since I regularly take longish trips into the countryside (what is left, at least, with all the urban sprawl). Thanks for the thought, though.

 

Use a prepaid cc and buy the bhr coils then never worry about it again.

Or contact charles at bhr direct get a price an send him a certified check.

 

No offense to Charles or BHR, but I think I will stick with the game plane. I don't put enough miles on car in a year to justify spending what amounts to twice the price for the sake of convenience. The BHR kit works out to about $550. for me as opposed to about $250 if I buy local. Odds are, it will still be about 2 years before I will have to do them again and, even at that, they will still be under the 3 year/80,000 warranty making them even less expensive. Besides, it's my knee that's screwed, not my hands which are well used to getting dirty with DIY.

 

You mentioned bhr in your first post. I thought you might have been interested in them.

Don't forget wires and plugs. You should just do them all at the same time.

 

Actually, the first post was a feeler about BWD vs their parent company's Blue Streak line and how the two of them fared against BHR which I know is a non-starter for me due to cost and no credit card situation. As I mentioned above, while I realize BHR coils are a superior product over the long-term, I don't do enough driving to justify the initial outlay. I don't mind getting my hands dirty every couple of years to replace units that are relatively easily accessible and not that hard to work on. The only consideration as far as plugs and wires go is who will supply them without my having to assume the position.

 

I've had experience to all, I mean ALL Stock-like coils over the years, OEM or aftermarket.

meaning ...

Original Mazda "boxed" No letter, A, B, now C.
All kinds of aftermarket coils, including BWD, AZ, AAP, OR, etc

so far, they all works the same.

but the "C" coils does look like it has the highest quality. well it's made/designed/revised around 2011 so yeah it's probably the newest/latest thing you can find. I have a few sets if anybody is interested.

oh, hell, I even got myself a set of the wonderful "chinese" coils, it came in beautiful "yellow" too. I have yet to try it tho believe it or not, unlike the ebay bullshit, the "chinese" coils are actually very well made. I don't have a pic cuz I left the set at mini storage. someday when I visit it AND if I remember I will dig it out to show u guys

 

I think "Motor King" is one of the ebay brands that is good to stay away from (other than the blatant counterfeits selling as "Mazda" coils). The DOA rate seems rather high.

 

I ordered a set from Amazon. 4 Coils for $60 shipped. They were built fine and the car drives like it should.

 

^ that doesn't help him if you actually read the thread and see where he mentions several times that online purchases are not viable for him.

$15 a coil would scare me though. That's counterfeit price range.

 

Finally picked up the new coils as I figured it was nearly time (I had a single misfire on heavy acceleration a week ago) and, wonder of wonders, the nice lady at Parts Source managed to locate an alternate supplier from which she was able to get the coils for me at $36. each. Now the big question: As they are Intermotor coils, how does one tell which version they are? Is there a marking or product code stamping that differentiates between, say, B and C?

 

You will never know, but the chances are that all the aftermarket coils are based off the first design of the stock coils.

 

So, what you are saying s that there as no way to tell other than by longevity? I would have thought that, if only for the sake of warranty claims, the manufacturers would have a) kept up with improving technology and b) would have almost proudly marked their products in a way that they could tell, come warranty claim time, which product was from which iteration of the design history.

 

The RX-8 is a small market car, there would be no incentive for aftermarket coil manufacturers to change the design. There is also no definitive proof that the Version C coils are much better than previous versions, only assumptions. We do know that the certain versions of the black market copy cat coils are inferior in terms of construction because we have seen side by side comparisons. Either way, if you are set on aftermarket OEM equivilents then just get OEM ones or higher priced aftermarket ones with a warranty.

 

As I recall, BWD/Intermotor was a brand recommended by one of the other members as a good replacement for OEM .As the ones I bought fit that category, I will give them a try since they are the Intermotor brand and will report back if it turns out they are sub-standard.

 

Been using BWD coils w/o problems here.

 

Same here.