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Plug wires flashing?


NateS
10-18-2007, 09:23 PM
Okay so I had my hood popped tonight. It was pretty dark outside and I noticed little flashes coming from my plug wires. Looked like the flashes were coming from inside the plug wire jackets. The arc flashes were coming from inside the wires and each wire was flashing at different times at different spots but, not very fast. Every few seconds there would be a faint flash. My questions is, is this normal? I honestly have never looked at my plug wires in the dark and saw this before. My wires have been on for awhile now so I don't know if they may be going bad or if this is normal occuring event.

SilvrEclipse
10-18-2007, 09:27 PM
Thats not normal, might want to check into that some more

gthompson97
10-18-2007, 09:34 PM
They're arcing because they're worn out. If you looked closely at them, I bet you can find some tiny cracks. Get new ones.

NateS
10-18-2007, 09:36 PM
Thanks I figured it wasn't normal but, I didn't want to go spend $80 bucks for no reason.

gthompson97
10-18-2007, 09:43 PM
How old are they? For the power that you're running (by your mods), you might want to look into Buschur's COP (coil-on-plug). They're pretty spendy, but basically what it does is each sparkplug gets it's own "mini-coil" that sits right above it. I know a guy that runs them up here, and he said he could definitely tell a difference when he put them on, but he kept having troubles with arcing plug wires so he got the COP instead.

MazdaX
10-18-2007, 09:51 PM
They're arcing because they're worn out. If you looked closely at them, I bet you can find some tiny cracks. Get new ones.


:1: or go with silicones..not as good as the COP's but eh..not as pricey either. You can get 10 mm's off ebay for around 40.00 shipped :/

NateS
10-18-2007, 09:52 PM
I'm ussually kinda cautious about those ebay deals but, I'll scope it out.

gthompson97
10-18-2007, 09:55 PM
If you do go wired again, definitely get oversized ones to keep this from happening again anytime soon.

4g63gst20
10-18-2007, 10:19 PM
i had the same problem with mine, but mine is only one wire, like if i pull it a litle then you will see/hear sparks. and my sparkplug wires were brand new. I will get oversized wires next time. l

gthompson97
10-18-2007, 10:36 PM
i had the same problem with mine, but mine is only one wire, like if i pull it a litle then you will see/hear sparks. and my sparkplug wires were brand new. I will get oversized wires next time. l

Maybe you just got a bad set. A new set shouldn't do that right out of the box, you have to wear them out at least a little bit before they start to spark.

SilvrEclipse
10-18-2007, 10:39 PM
i had the same problem with mine, but mine is only one wire, like if i pull it a litle then you will see/hear sparks. and my sparkplug wires were brand new. I will get oversized wires next time.

Were these wires from ebay??

4g63gst20
10-19-2007, 06:39 AM
Were these wires from ebay??
no man, i bought them at checker auto, but now that i remember, they said they had limited lifetime warranty.

Blackcrow64
10-19-2007, 06:52 AM
Yeah those are definitely no good. I had the same problem with the Firebird going through a lot of plug wires until I upgraded to heavier ones... So with my Talon I just went and bought heavier ones off the bat rather than screwing around with stock wires...

Although now I am wishing I had gotten a COP setup for my motor... Who knows, maybe that'll be next on the list of things to do once its running. :wink:

NateS
10-19-2007, 02:26 PM
Thes plug wires I am talking about are bigger ones. They are Magnacore 8.5 mms. Like I said though the flashing seems to be coming from inside the jacket. It is not arcing out of the jacket jus inside.

gthompson97
10-19-2007, 02:30 PM
So it's not arcing outside through the jacket? I'm confused now. So you could see little sparks from INSIDE the wires?

Do you or someone you know have a multimeter? Check resistance on the wires, it should be less than 22,000 ohms.

NateS
10-19-2007, 02:33 PM
It wasn't sparks. It appeared to be arc flashes. Just quick bright flashes but they were dimmed a little because they were inside the jacket.

gthompson97
10-19-2007, 02:38 PM
See if you can get the wires tested and get some real numbers, that should tell you if the wires are bad or not.

NateS
10-19-2007, 03:45 PM
Well I borrowed an ohmmeter and pulled one of the wires. First one I tested read 32,400... I didn't bother to check the others. I'm going to order another set of Magnacor but, any opinions on if I should go with the 8.5mm again or go with the 10mm. I am not suprised these 8.5mm wires went bad because they have been on there for a long time (at least 2 years). Is there really any good reason for spending the extra 35 bucks for a set of 10s?

NateS
10-19-2007, 04:00 PM
Just found a set of Taylor 10.4mm plug wires. http://www.extremepsi.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=18809&cat=907&page=1 Any thoughts? Only 10 bucks more than the magnacor 8.5s

gthompson97
10-19-2007, 08:33 PM
I have a set of Taylors and they're a very nice wire. Nice thick protective jacket, I'd snatch them up.

SilvrEclipse
10-21-2007, 08:51 AM
http://www.dsmsource.com/classifieds/showproduct.php?product=23102

Brand new COP setup

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