Sparks plugs

on a dark night open the hood of the car and look for sparks coming from
the wires... bad wires will have cracks in them and let the high voltage
stray from the wires to gound.. if you see sparks then you need new
wires.. on car thats 5 yrs. old you should get some new wires.. stay
with quality wires from honda and you should have no problem.........
and dont throw away the old wires.. i always keep some of the old wires
when i change mine out, also keep the old everything like belts, etc.
never know when the new one might break and you need a spare until
monday morning or can get back home with the vehicle.....

 

I'm replacing the sparks plugs on my 98 accord today.

I think that Japanese OEM wires can last a lot longer, if they were
taken care of: removed gently by pushing the boots, not being allowed
to rub on sharp or hot surfaces, and occasionally treated with some
silicone.
Another test is to spray a mist of water on the wires with one of
those hand held sprayers while the engine is running. Any cracks in
the wires will ersult in a miss.
I'm not sure about this, but I think that 10k - 20k ohms would be an
expected range for good resistive wires

 

I'm replacing the sparks plugs on my 98 accord today. I was wondering if
anyone knew whether Pep Boys has stock plugs. Also, I'd like to know how to
check if my current spark plug wires are good. I'm thinking that checking
the resistance should point me in the right direction, but I don't know the
resistance range that identifies good wires from bad. If anyone can tell me
what the resistance should be, or how and where I can find out for myself,
it'd be much appreciated.

Thank you!

--Viktor

 

Hi Jim,

Thanks for your reply. Other than cracked wires, what other damage could be
done to them? I'm planning on changing the wires as well but I was hoping it
could wait a little bit. If the spark wires are worn out, I'm assuming the
new spark plugs won't work to their full potential so I'll have to change
them sooner or later. What spark plugs are good for a 98 accord ex 4cyl.
I'll be getting them from PepBoys, or maybe someone can recommend another
auto store besides Honda dealership.

Thanks a lot!

--Viktor

 

Recently I was hunting for the ohms readings to indicate bad spark plug wires. I
found a couple of sites that said the resistance can get up to 35,000 ohms (=
35k ohms) or even 50k ohms in a single wire. The sites said this is too much;
replacement is due.

I also found the following helpful:
-----
http://www.inct.net/~autotips/plugwire.htm
Testing Plug Wires: If you have access to a factory service manual for your
car, you may find a resistance rating for the spark plug wires, (such as
1000 - 4000 ohms per foot). If you know how to use an ohm meter, you can
measure the plug wires resistance from end to end and see if they are within
specifications. Look at the connectors, check for corrosion. Insulation on
plug wires can break down, and they may arc to ground or other wires.
Crossed Wires: You may see guides on your car that have the plug wires
crossed over each other, rather than in nice parallel lines. This is
intentional to cancel out magnetic fields. Wires in parallel may cause one
wire to induce a voltage in another wire, causing it to fire when it
shouldn't . Plug wire problems can result in miss-firing, hard starting, and
poor fuel economy. If you change plug wires, you may want to replace them
one at a time to keep from mixing them up to the wrong spark plug.
-----

I replaced the plug wires on a friend's Ford recently and for fun checked the
resistances of two of the wires. They were consistent with the above 1k-4k per
foot readings. But I don't think a "good" resistance reading necessarily
confirms the wires are perfectly fine. Like another poster said, check under the
hood in the dark with the car running. Also, terminals may become corroded. (I
saw this on the distributor power supply terminal of my friend's car.)

I checked the Chilton manual for the car and could not find a resistance spec.
for the plug wires.

Make sure you coat the terminals with dielectric ointment to keep out water,
dust, etc. and ensure optimal operation of the engine electrical system...

My web searches also indicate that buying OEM wires is probably worth it and I
don't think are much more expensive. Otherwise, buy the top of the line wires
from Autozone et al.

 

Use the factory specified NGK spark plugs and you should be fine no matter
where you buy them. By the way, the OE spark plug wires shouldn't need
replacing until you hit 100,000 miles. Honda's wires are quite good and
better than much of the after market stuff that's available at places like
PepBoys. Note that NGK's wires are also quite good and come close to
Honda's fit and quality.

 

I'm replacing the sparks plugs on my 98 accord today. I was wondering if

You need to be aware that some wires (I remember some NGKs were among
them) don't use a resistive core. Instead they use a spiral wound
metal core which provides inductive reactance to damp out the sharp
spike of the spark. These will exhibit zero resistance when hooked up
to an ohm-meter

 

I'll hit 100K next week probably. I'm at around 99.7K right now. I got the
NGK spark plugs from pepboys for about $8. I'll replace them now, and I'll
get some new spark plug wires during next week. Btw, I found the resistance
on the wires. I have it on a piece of paper in the car and I'll post it
later in case someone needs it.

Well, I'm off to changing spark plugs.

--Viktor

 

I wouldn't. Grease in my opinion would just turn into hard carbon like
deposits and may make it more difficult to remove the plug later. All you
need is a small jar of anti-seize compound. The stuff lasts forever. I
have a can that is about 5 years old and there is about 90% still left.

CaptainKrunch

 

Got a question. Can I use grease instead of anti-seize for the spark plugs?

Thanks!

--Viktor

 

A little late :/ I installed the plugs and applied VERY LITTLE grease on the
threads of the plugs. The torque is 156 in-lb for those interested (98
Accord Ex as well as V6's). Hopefully the grease won't cause too much
trouble since it doesn't even raise above the height of the separate
threads. I don't think the old spark plugs had any anti-seize compound
because it took a decent amount of force to unscrew them and they were "a
little" rusty.

--Viktor