Best/Cheapest aftermarket spark plug wires?

[Catastrophe]

Ok... When I am driving, and I hit the throttle quick, I can hear a quick "Knock/Ping" every time. I ran carbon cleaner "Gumout" through the throttle body, and after that I ran water through to "Steam clean" the engine and remove carbon from the pistons/combustion chamber. I did this TWICE in two days to make sure it gets cleaned well. The knock/Ping went away "I thought", but it was doing it again tonight. The Knock/Ping happens really quick "Enough to clearly hear it for a second", and it does not drag on... I only hear it when I juice the throttle. The temp gauge is usually on the "R" in NORMAL. Do you think I need my plug wires replaced? I just installed brand new "Motorcraft" plugs a month ago, but the wires are about 2-3 years old. Thanks in advance...

<small>[ December 15, 2003, 08:16 PM: Message edited by: Clitaurus ]</small>

 

[Machspeed]

That doesnt sound liek plugs/wires would cause that. you use premium right. If you do decide to change your wires id go with the taylor 8mm from summit, there about 70 bux.

 

[Catastrophe]

I always run "93" octane, and have been using a product called "Prestone cold start" for the past few weeks (Every tank). Maybe an ingredient in this Prestone stuff is messing it up? I'm at a loss as to why this knock/ping is happening.

<----This is the stuff...

 

[shojuan]

I had pinging problems before I did a complete 60K and it all went away after I did the 60K. I replaced some sensors too at the same time...TPS and ECT.

Sure enough the shotgun approach worked for me!

Really, there can be a lot of different causes of pinging. I remember sometime last year Nick Chrimes was having quite a time tracking down some pinging problems. I think some sound advice if you don't know what's going on is to focus on getting your car in good tune. Lot's of tuneup parts in these cars that are over 100,000 miles that want to be replaced. But they'll fool you by continuing to work long past their intended service lifetime, albeit not necessarily working as well as they should.

 

[shojuan]

You might want to start by replacing your TPS. It's pretty cheap from autozone. Also, how old are your oxygen sensors? A clean air filter and clean MAF would be good. Be careful cleaning your MAF...don't touch the filaments and let it dry in a safe place.

Also, does the car only ping when the car is warmed up? When the car is cold the computer uses a fixed map. When the car is at operating temperature it relies on sensor feedback.

Also, excessive oil consumption can cause pinging. Oil lowers the octane rating of the intake charge. Burning 1 quart every 1000 miles won't cause you any problems. But burning 1 quart every 200 miles will. My truck which is supposed to run on 87 octane needs premium to not ping (it will still occasionally ping) because of high oil consumption. When I try to get by with 87 in that truck I get rewarded with lots of pinging.

 

[sdpatt]

It is within the normal operation of the engine control system to take a fraction of a second to retard the ignition timing to quell spark knock after a quick change of state such as rapid throttle opening. The knock sensor must first "hear" a knock event to begin to retard the ignition timing. If the knocking continues after the first adjustment, additional knocks and timing changes may be required to stop the knocking.

You are probably correct in trying to clean the combustion chambers to prevent this condition. You may want to pull one of the front bank spark plugs to see what the conditions are on the plug tip and peek inside the cylinder to see what deposits are present.

Another option would be to disconnect the EEC keep alive memory connector (or negative battery terminal) and let the engine relearn the idle and control parameters.

 

[shojuan]

Ok, now that I know that the ping only occurs for a short period of time that falls within normal behavior just as Scott described. The more you can tune up your car the less often the computer will have to retard the timing via knock sensor feedback. Check your codes to see if there are obvious things to take care of and then replace old tuneup parts systematically as you can afford them. It wouldn't be a bad idea to start with the cheapest/easiest to replace sensors like the TPS and ECT and even the ACT sensors (that would be a good order for replacement). New wires would be a nice thing to replace if what's installed are the original wires. The Taylors have been proven to be a good alternative to the more expensive stock Motorcraft wires. Some would argue that they are higher quality than stock, at a lower price. A clean air filter and a MAF cleaning are cheap. Consider a throttle body cleaning. New O2 sensors should be on your list if they haven't been replaced yet. I'm sure there are several other things I can't thing of too. Is your cooling system clean and is your coolant fairly fresh? That can help keep your engine running its best. Redline water wetter is a good product to add to help promote efficient heat transfer in the cooling system.