Quick question for you guys. Would anybody happen to know why one of my wires keeps going bad on me? Ever since I got my car, it has intermittent problems of it studdering, rough idle, slow acceleration, but it never has any rhyme or reason to it. Its completely random. Some days it does it, Than a whole week it won't do it. Anyways, it finally got bad enough that my car kept stalling, so i got it into a shop, and they replaced one of my spark plug wires, and it was fine. Now its starting to act up again. The shop says they don't know why, and can't doing anything until it throws a code, but I figured somebody must have an idea as to why it would be going. Would a bad coil pack be the cause of it? Bad spark plugs? any ideas would be very helpful.

 

For 15-Bucks you can get a 600-Pound Rated Ratchet Strap. Add 35-Bucks for a set of Bosch Vinyl Wrapped Stainless Core Wires and another 12 to 15-Bucks for a Set of New Plugs.

That's what I did. Three days later I had all the New Plugs in ... all the New Wires on ... and, this 3400 SFI Engine is running GREAT!

Keep your wits about you and do your own Wires and Plugs. It's an adventure in "Tough-reaches and tight-quarters" but well worth it for the "No more worrying" about Plugs and Wires for awhile.

The Backside Plugs are a MAJOR Pain in the Buttocks to climb-in and get out of there. But, as you do them ... one at a time ... you're only "Counting Down" from three!

When you finally get that engine rolled-back and the Motor Mounts all torqued down, again ... there's a GREAT DEAL of personal satisfaction knowing you've got the New Wires and Plugs in there and won't have to mess with them for a good long while.

 

I changed them in them at the end of november, and the total of it was 100 for new wires and plugs. Its now been 3000 km, and i've already had a wire go bad, and the one i just replaced again is going bad again as well. Any ideas whats causing this

 

Maybe its NOT Bad. Maybe its the Clip inside the Boot NOT getting fully connected to the top of the Spark Plug. This was happening to me and I got the "Check Engine" Light and it was read by the AutoZone Meter as "Number-1 Cylinder Misfire" I think my problem was that I used a conductive AntiSeize Lubricant on the Ceramic Neck of the Plug causing the Plug to short-out rather than fire.

So, I learned my lesson hard and replaced the Wires and cleaned-off the AntiSeize off the Plugs. Once I got her all together with the New Wires and cleaned-off New Plugs; I haven't had an Ignition related kind of trouble since.

If you pulled on the Boots to undo them from the Plug. you may have damaged the Wire (or left behind a portion of Boot like I did) and now you NEED New Wires.
If you have a Multi-Meter, do a continuity and resistance check on your Wires. If there is any irregularity in the Testing, spring for a set of High Quality Wires and you may be done with having a Cylinder not firing.

 

Well the thing is, whenever I replace the wire, it runs great. My friend has a lumina with the 3.1, tried my wire on his engine, and it ran with problems just like mine. Meaning the wire is bad, and its unlikely that i've had three wires that were not properly built. I could be wrong though. I try the multi meter testing and see if that turns out any results though

 

a shop witha tech2 or i think more expensive aftermarket scanners, can see misfires and know what cylinder its on, assuming they can get the car to miss. if only 1 cylinder is missing they could try swaping injectors with that cylinder and another(easy ona 3.8, hard ona 3.4) and see if the miss stays or follows the injector. sometimes the miss shows on 2 cylinders, or most of the missfires on one cylinder and a few on another, this happens on 2cylinders that share the same coil, when this is the case you can be certain the problem is in the ignition, if the problem isnt apparent you can swap parts with unaffected cylinders to find the problem part. aside from coils, plugs and wires, the ignition module is also a possibility.

if the car will miss for your shop, and they cant figure it out, you need a better shop.

 

if you keep replacing the same wire, look at the other wire using that coil

 

Thats the thing, my brother(who works at the shop and did all the work), says there scanners were saying nothing was wrong. No misfires. But maybe i'll try swapping the fuel injectors around and seeing if thats the problem.

 

swapping injectors wont tell you anything if a scanner cant tell which cyl is missing to begin with.

does the car have a miss, or only have a miss sometimes?

 

only sometimes.