So I was at work today and my wife to our boy out trick or treating, well she was about 1 mile from our house(thank god) when the CEL(frantically flashing, then a steady light) came on just as the car was lunging and bogging down, she called me from the side of the road and I told her to gently nurse it back home. My first inclination! the cheap plug wires I got from Napa about two months ago(maybe three), so when I got home I popped the hood to take a look at what may have been going on, I checked all four plug wires...well all of them where still in the cylinder ports, I pulled each one,one at a time to see if any were loose, well as all of you know you will hear a small click when you push it back on the plug, when I got to the drivers side and went to pull the one closest to the front of the car, I barely had to even pull it and it came out:eek:, I tried seeing if it would go back on right but nope:-\ no click like it was secure to the plug, so I'm going to go to Napa first thing in the morning,Hopefully they have a set of NGKs in stock, I have a feeling these plug wires may be causing more problems that I'm not aware of yet. Whats funny is when GD was helping me with the timing belt, he told me those wires are crap...lesson learned:lol:, hope fully new wires will correct the problem, whats funny is I (and GD) touched the coil pack and the damn thing zapped us! got a feeling its those wires.:-\

I'm praying that the belt didnt jump a tooth, that would suck, but I doubt it since GD was on scene helping:banana:

for this engine Subaru spark plugs wires are best. aftermarkets are a gamble, i've seen them cause issue right out of the box so i don't waste my time any more. subaru wires are cheap and last like 10 years anyway so not really worth it.

 

good news is that if you get a check engine light it's not a "BIG problem!!!". annoying and frustrating, yes. but it's simple, just read the code and let us know what the code is. big problems are hard to diagnose or difficult repairs, none of which this will be.

Indeed! The CEL just means that the car might pollute more than it's allowed. It's not a "Your engine is gonna blow in a second" kind of lamp.

Yea, the OEM spark plug wires are great, but a dealer is not close to where I live. I highly recommend the Bosch wires and plugs from a parts. I have gotten great use from them.

Yeah - flashing CEL indicates a misfire - that's the only time they flash. It's to get the driver's attention to stop them from destroying the cat.

 

I can't see the belt skipping - everything is new in there. Something would have had to go really, really wrong for that to happen. With all new parts and belt that seems highly unlikely.

 

The fact that the coil pack bit me (and you) when we touched it has got to play into this somehow...... maybe that plug wire was loose all along and just now decided not to spark. Or perhaps something is actually wrong with the coil pack.

 

I know Discount Import Parts has NGK's in stock. Pretty sure anyway. Probably about $25 or so.

 

GD

Edited November 1, 201015 yr by GeneralDisorder

but a dealer is not close to where I live.

 

true, but an online dealer is only 4 days away. not every repair requires immediate action. most of us put off repairs for a long time for any number of reasons.

 

but i might try NKG wires next time.

 

what are you paying for bosch wires?

what are you paying for bosch wires?

 

Bosch wires were something like $40-$45 bucks about 4 years ago, so prolly no savings over OEM wires. I can just recommend that Bosch quality is good, and worth buying. It is the low end cheap wires at auto parts stores that cause problems.

NGK is a great value for wires and we all use their plugs - I have not had an issue with either and have used many of each as well as their NTK oxygen sensor line. Love all their products.

 

Only time I don't use NGK wires is on my EJ turbo engines. I use OEM for those because they are much more sensitive to ignition parts.

 

GD

Ok...so I went to Napa and they don't have the NGKs in stock, so they ordered a set for me, I didn't want to drive it too far and burn up the cat, Napa is 2 miles from my house, Dealer=12 miles. Well anyway I went to my buddy's house and he hooked up the scanner to it, sure enough just as I thought, P302, cylinder 2 miss fire:eek: So I went to Napa, I can not go a day without our car so thankfully they have a lifetime warranty and swapped out the bad for some good ones:banana: no sputter, no lunging. The NGKs are on their way, I'll swap them out and just put the Napa POS plug wires in the shed for emergency. Now on to the struts,axles boots,ball joints, and clutch work.....ugh

 

Let's here a "Hooray!" for it not being my timing belt job

 

Sorry man - I should have known when that thing bit me that those plug wires were suspect. I thought you had it sorted with that ground wire but I think that just shunted the "bite" away from your brother's hand .

 

GD

Hooray!!! I had no doubt about your timing belt job, thankfully it wasn't a bad coil pack, those things are a fortune.

thankfully it wasn't a bad coil pack, those things are a fortune.

 

Used is the way to go on those - they almost never fail so $10 from a yard is a much better solution.

 

GD