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"All harness ends to the coils are missing the tab that secures them to the coil...." Is his statement accurate?

This is what the service advisor wrote us and I question this broken tabs being normal:

Today when we looked at you vehicle(2008 toyota camry) it had codes for a misfire to cylinder 1. Coil pack was not firing… Coil was swapped to cylinder 4. All harness ends to the coils are missing the tab that secures them to the coil. There may have been a connection issue to coil #1. Tech added a dab of RTV at the end of the harness and left to dry to help hold them on there better. This is not uncommon to see those tabs broken or missing on any vehicle of that age. Vehicle was test driven and no codes came back. There is a possibility that coil may be failing… However if it is, it is not showing that at the moment. Coils are a step up transformer that convert low voltage (12 vt) to to high voltage that produces spark hot enough to fire in the combustion chamber.

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  • Welcome. Can you just clarify what you are asking? Are you asking if this is a common fault?
    – HandyHowie
    Commented Feb 13, 2023 at 11:55
  • @HandyHowie clarified better
    – jdl
    Commented Feb 13, 2023 at 18:21
  • What is your question? Are you asking if he is telling the truth about the tabs being missing? You'd need to provide a picture for us to be able to comment on that.
    – Rory Alsop
    Commented Feb 13, 2023 at 18:37

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It is entirely possible that the tab is missing on the ignition coil connectors. The connectors are located in close proximity to the engine, under the engine cover that will keep heat in. Prolonged heat exposure and possible a poor design may make the tabs brittle and prone to breaking during servicing. If one breaks, then the others, being in the same environment will be close to breaking.

Maybe all of the tabs were already broken. Maybe some were already broken and others broke when he release the cables, but he shouldn't be blamed for a common design fault.

enter image description here

This video on YouTube show the first coil's tab was already broken.

I may be wrong, but the second tab sounded like it broke when he released it. And near the end of the video, they all look like they may be broken, but I am not certain of that.

I noticed this in the video comments, so maybe they all looked different because he replaced them - enter image description here

enter image description here

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