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Arcing Plug Wires


EJPut

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Still trying to solve my severe stumble that shows no codes. I sprayed some water on the wires and noticed some sparks of light coming from most of them, I don't know if I should take this as normal or if they are in fact arcing and should be replaced. Is it normal to see some sparking? How can I test them?

Thanks,

Eric

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My guess is replace em. Any spark has to be a draw on the system.

2001 STS Mettalic Otter Grey, Black Leather, 213,000 kilometers - miles - ? Still running strong!

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Had a stumble in my Park Avenue and thought it was either the coil or the wires. I tried the coil first but no luck. Then did the wires, and it ran like new. It was just barely arcing once in a while, but you could really feel the engine stumble.

My wires were only like 25 bucks so it's probably worth it to change them anyway. (how many miles you got on it?)

Good luck!

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I see tons of little blueish 'dots' (Flashing) when i mist my wires at night. I'm not sure if the dots are bad or not but there is no real big arcs or anything. I'm going to look at the wires on my other cars just to see if they make the same blue flashing dots on the wires. But I think they all do this to some extent.

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I see tons of little blueish 'dots' (Flashing) when i mist my wires at night. I'm not sure if the dots are bad or not but there is no real big arcs or anything. I'm going to look at the wires on my other cars just to see if they make the same blue flashing dots on the wires. But I think they all do this to some extent.

Yes ALL plug wires will do this, even brand new ones. Not something to worry about, but it's not a bad idea to do a comparison so you know what you are looking at.

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Yes ALL plug wires will do this, even brand new ones. Not something to worry about, but it's not a bad idea to do a comparison so you know what you are looking at.

I misted mine last night as I continued my quest to see what the HELL is wrong with my car. Nary a spark, flash, or anything else resembling arcing, so I disagree with the notion that all, even new, will do this.

Cheers,

Tim

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They are there, you just can't see them then. Blue arcs are fine, make sure you rev it up somewhat to make sure you don't see any white/gold arcs. If you don't I would try something else. Did you measure resistance on each wire? Also, what brand are they?

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Yes ALL plug wires will do this, even brand new ones. Not something to worry about, but it's not a bad idea to do a comparison so you know what you are looking at.

I misted mine last night as I continued my quest to see what the HELL is wrong with my car. Nary a spark, flash, or anything else resembling arcing, so I disagree with the notion that all, even new, will do this.

Cheers,

Tim

I'd guess it just wasn't dark enough, or you didn't mist enough, or your water is really really pure.

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The 93 & 94 have a carbon build up in the phenolic spacers at 100k+ miles. There is plently of this info in the archive. It's fairly easy to do and will take anywhere from 3 to 4 hours depending upon how much scraping you care to do. In my 93 Eldo 4.6L, I would describe it a more of a shudder than a stumble. I finally de-carboned the engine after replacing the spark plugs and wires, fuel filter, air cleaner, etc... It solved the problem and eliminated the shudder. This needs to be done about every 100k miles.

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It has to be TOTALLY dark.. Can't see your hand in front of your face dark. Then you will see something. You should see something on ANY set of wires.. might be a dull glow but i'm not sure if i'm supposed to see little blue flashes everywhere (it's been about 10 years since I did this last hehe). Measuring resistance is good too and can be done with any ohmmeter

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Yes, try the EGR tips for the Northstar and see if that makes a difference. Did you do plugs, clean throttle body, air filter, the whole 9 yards already? You did check codes correct?

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Boy,! this misting process is a pain! I never could get it to turn completely blue, so I ended up removing the hood, and having a buddy sit on the fender and watch as I drove at high speed in the rain. Test results were inconclusive, laughing gas system worked flawlessly though. can't say that my buddy laughed all that hard

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LOL.. riiiiiiiiigggggghtttttttt...........

Make it pitch black and grab the wires and it will send little blue lights to your fingers like one of those lightning orb things (forget what the real name of it is.. )

fun :>

I do bad things to cars :> I pulled out my egr thingy and started the car.. man was that funny, it stalled after a few seconds and you wouldn't believe how many codes it set lol. for one little thing like 20 codes. Now why can't it just come up with a message on the DIC like 'Hey dumbass, put the EGR valve back in'. Guess cars aren't to that point yet hgehehe

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They are there, you just can't see them then. Blue arcs are fine, make sure you rev it up somewhat to make sure you don't see any white/gold arcs. If you don't I would try something else. Did you measure resistance on each wire? Also, what brand are they?

Before I go replacing these again (did it 6mos ago) how do I measure the resistance?

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With a multimeter.. set it to ohms , pull the wire off and stick the prongs in both ends. it will tell you .. I think normal stock wires are 4000-6000 ohms or something.. I don't remember but it's up there. Check the manual it should tell you the range that they can be in to work properly.. Wires should last several years, not months :> Mine are 6 years old and i'm just now replacing them

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