So I took my car to get the tire's rotated and on the way home a check engine light came on and it was shuttering bad. So i took it back to the tire place and they opened up the engine and immedialty saw that one of the plug wires was against the side of the EGR valve. The guy moved the wire over but there a gash in the side of it from rubbing on the valve for so long. I was driving it later today and every once and a while the car will shutter some during acceleration so I think im gonna have a to get a new wire. Can you get just one at an autoparts place? Also Id like to replace it my self but its one going to a cylinder on the side of the engine closer to the firewall so i can't hardly get to it. Ideas?

 

Bite the bullet if you are going to take-on this project yourself. The cost of a really nice set of Bosch Wires is half what you'll pay for farming the job out.

You have to undo the two upper motor mounts ans rotate the engine forward to get some room to work back there. I elected to buy a RATCHET STRAP and pull the motor forward.
If you are lucky, the Plug Caps will pull right off and allow you to get to the Spark Plug. If not ... you are going to need some muscle getting the Plug Caps off if they are cooked-on.

I had to secure a nylon line, knotted at the end, to the Plug Cap, with strong Plastic Tie Wraps and wrap-up the line around a big, long screwdriver and pry-off the Plug Caps that were baked-on to the Plugs.

The Plastic tie was firmly snugged-up with the knotted line caught and the other end of the line taped to a long screwdriver so I could twist-up the line around the screwdriver as I used the Exhaust Manifold for a Fulcrum Point to pull-off the Plug Caps from their Plugs.
Nothing went easy for me.
Nothing!

Once I got the Plug Caps off I found it necessary to use a 1/2" Drive Pry-bar with adapter and a one-inch extension to get the Plug Socket on the Plug with enough leverage to Break the Plug loose.

Since you are going to have to go through Hell to do one wire ... you might as well do the other two while you're the guest of the Devil. It's a fine way to raise your Blood Pressure to where you are just about blowing steam out your ears.

Once you have the THREE WIRES and THREE PLUGS done on the Firewall side ... its all down-hill from there until you have to crack-open the Wire loom holders and openn them to get the old wires out and place the new wires in.

There aren't that many ... but, ... each one is more difficult in its "Reach" ... you should alert the family and neighbors that you'll be screaming and hollering but it's OK because you won't have to revisit this thankless, miserable, motor-scooting, good-hammed, fogging job again until almost forever.

 

also the stock wires are some of the best for the preformance wires. up to like 400 hp.
SO unles syou like the colors they can come in i would not get anythign that has a big name like MSD. etc... dont get me wrong they look great and they will do the job but you can get the same preformance with the stockers. and save some cash in your paocket also.

as far as the ones on teh back if you take the stabalizer off the strut towers and then go to the drivers side fo the car and lay acrossed the motor you can actually reach them pretty good and I would do the plugs while i was there. JUST GET SOME ANTI SEAZE FOR THEM TO

 

I put Permatex Aluminum Paste AntiSeize Compound on those Strut Tower Brace Bolts, the Front Engine Mount Bolts, all the Spark Plug Threads, on my good shirt sleeves, a little bit on my new sneakers and some on the Red Yamaha Floor Mat in front of my toolbox!

You gotta love the stuff!

 

dont for get that you go tit on th epint,the floor around your car, the neibors cars and the kids down the street.

 

Hey,thanks for the great tips here. I got a random miss in my `98 and am replacing the plugs,wires and ignition packs for good measure. So far at 105k my 3.1 is doing well. And I got the green coolant,lol.

 

Good luck with that random miss, blazerman. 3.1's all have a random miss...lol. I'm not saying you won't fix it, but don't be surprised when it could still be there and nobody can figure it out. A mechanic friend of mine told me that on a vehicle with a 3.1that the dealership he worked at had sold (brand new) came back 2 weeks later with a "random miss" and they basically rebuilt the top end and the miss was still there...the lady who bought it returned it and got another car. They sold the car to someone else and never saw it again.

 

Alittle update to my spark miss. Last week I wrapped electrical tape around the area on the wire where the plastic shielding was gone. It made the shuttering go away and I was planning on just leaving like that until I could get it fixed. However, on the way to school today it started acting up like crazy shuddering on almost every acceleration and while ideling at stoplights so im taking it in today to get at least that one wire replaced and maybe one other one that was rubbing.

 

I had a persistent problem with Plug Wires shorting-out on my 305 Camaro. I wound-up taking some Rubber Fuel Line and splitting it length-wise and putting the wire inside the hose.

If you tape the hose closed with the spark plug wire inside, the hose prevents the wire from shorting-out on an ones that cross-over or to the block.
This little experiment worked like a charm. Eventually, I added the hose insulation to the wires that were crossing over and I got the miss out of that engine for good.

 

i owuld sugest jsut replacing the plug wires.
if your goign to take it in to a shop your paying for more then a set of wires.
also if your not mechanicaly inclined it really is not that difficult to do them.
just take one off at a time and find the one that is closet to one you took off and replace it .
Continue like this till you get to the end of the wires.

but in taking them in to the shop to have this done they will nail ya for 100.00 or more in most cases . and you can get a set of OEM replacments from auto zone for like 30.00 and take about 30.min to replace all of them.

Just a thought