Major failure of MSD spark plug wires
06-01-2008, 06:45 PM
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Major failure of MSD spark plug wires
The car started acting funny under load at Summit Point a couple months ago. I made it the 3.5 hour drive home. Figure my dizzy had pooped out on me and ordered a new one. While getting ready to install the new dizzy, I find that 3 of the wire where broken and the 4th was held on my just a hair width of metal. My #3 wire was corroded like crazy. Moisture from???
#1 and #2 where completely toast. I'm going to have to give MSD an "F" on design engineering this connector. I can now understand that after multiple connecting and disconnecting over the last couple of years has caused fatigue in the half-*** bend that finally led to it's failure. Too bad it cost me half a track weekend and the cost of a new distributor to figure it out.
#1 and #2 where completely toast. I'm going to have to give MSD an "F" on design engineering this connector. I can now understand that after multiple connecting and disconnecting over the last couple of years has caused fatigue in the half-*** bend that finally led to it's failure. Too bad it cost me half a track weekend and the cost of a new distributor to figure it out.
06-01-2008, 07:18 PM
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Re: Major failure of MSD spark plug wires (mrlegoman)
the exact same thing happened to me a couple months ago, minus the track day ordering a new one. I think it was even the same cylinder that corroded and broke, weird.
06-02-2008, 04:19 AM
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Re: Major failure of MSD spark plug wires (rd91sib18c5r)
This could very easily have been avoided. As you mentioned constantly pulling at the wires to disconnect the plug at the dizzy is not the correct way to disconnect them. This will cause any plug wire with a 90 deg angle to fail. You are supposed to pull them from the dizzy socket via the plug boot. Your corrosion problem is obviously from a lack of dielectric grease that comes with the plugs. Those boots look as dry as a pop corn fart. Both of these failures are a product of poor maintenance.
Sorry about your lost track day... but this will happen to any plug wire you subject to these conditions not just MSD's.... Lesson learned.
Sorry about your lost track day... but this will happen to any plug wire you subject to these conditions not just MSD's.... Lesson learned.
06-02-2008, 04:51 AM
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Re: Major failure of MSD spark plug wires (GhostAccord)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GhostAccord »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This could very easily have been avoided. As you mentioned constantly pulling at the wires to disconnect the plug at the dizzy is not the correct way to disconnect them. This will cause any plug wire with a 90 deg angle to fail. You are supposed to pull them from the dizzy socket via the plug boot. Your corrosion problem is obviously from a lack of dielectric grease that comes with the plugs. Those boots look as dry as a pop corn fart. Both of these failures are a product of poor maintenance.
Sorry about your lost track day... but this will happen to any plug wire you subject to these conditions not just MSD's.... Lesson learned.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Correct, I've never used dielectric grease on these. I has an issue when I first got them that they would work themselves loose and literally pop out. I added some zip ties and did some re-clamping of the wires. I figured the dielectric grease would just make this problem worse.
As far as disconnecting them, no, I don't jerk on the wires to rip them off if that is what your implying. I grab the end of the boot closest to the dizzy and pull. But even then, all the stress to pop the plug out is being applied to the thin 90deg joint.
Bad design + lack of regular inspection/maintenance = failure bound to happen
Sorry about your lost track day... but this will happen to any plug wire you subject to these conditions not just MSD's.... Lesson learned.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Correct, I've never used dielectric grease on these. I has an issue when I first got them that they would work themselves loose and literally pop out. I added some zip ties and did some re-clamping of the wires. I figured the dielectric grease would just make this problem worse.
As far as disconnecting them, no, I don't jerk on the wires to rip them off if that is what your implying. I grab the end of the boot closest to the dizzy and pull. But even then, all the stress to pop the plug out is being applied to the thin 90deg joint.
Bad design + lack of regular inspection/maintenance = failure bound to happen
06-02-2008, 10:02 AM
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Wow, I've never seen any kind of wires do that. How old are they? I've never had any problems with OEM/NGK wires, and I've also never bothered with the grease. I guess I'll pick some up on my next trip to the auto parts store just in case.
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06-05-2008, 10:23 AM
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Re: (Agnom)
I know there have been a ton of spark plug wire threads and opinions. But has there actually been and solid independent test to prov an aftermarket wire actually gains you anything over the OEM Honda wire?
06-05-2008, 11:21 AM
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Re: (mrlegoman)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mrlegoman »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I know there have been a ton of spark plug wire threads and opinions. But has there actually been and solid independent test to prov an aftermarket wire actually gains you anything over the OEM Honda wire?</TD></TR></TABLE>
I've had nothing but good experiences with OEM and NGK blue wires. If they're good enough for 400-500+hp builds, they're good enough for mine. The same goes for the rest of the OEM ignition components, assuming they're in good working order. Unless you're converting to a distributer-less setup for a high HP build, I don't really see the point in adding a bunch of aftermarket components. It just seems like more variables that can malfunction.
I still remember my dyno day a couple years back. The car ahead of me had some major ignition problems(MSD cap, blaster coil, etc) and would not run well enough on the dyno for the tuner to tune. I had to wait while they switched out different coils to try and get it to run. They even tried swapping in someone else's stock cap, but it was the wrong shape or something, and then they tried swapping the entire distributer, but it was the wrong OBD generation, so they ended up just pulling the car off the dyno over an hour later.
Then there's those "super mega fantastic grounded aerospace conductor" wires with grounding straps running every which way that cost hundreds of dollars(for a set of wires?!). Why anyone would ever buy those is beyond me.
I've had nothing but good experiences with OEM and NGK blue wires. If they're good enough for 400-500+hp builds, they're good enough for mine. The same goes for the rest of the OEM ignition components, assuming they're in good working order. Unless you're converting to a distributer-less setup for a high HP build, I don't really see the point in adding a bunch of aftermarket components. It just seems like more variables that can malfunction.
I still remember my dyno day a couple years back. The car ahead of me had some major ignition problems(MSD cap, blaster coil, etc) and would not run well enough on the dyno for the tuner to tune. I had to wait while they switched out different coils to try and get it to run. They even tried swapping in someone else's stock cap, but it was the wrong shape or something, and then they tried swapping the entire distributer, but it was the wrong OBD generation, so they ended up just pulling the car off the dyno over an hour later.
Then there's those "super mega fantastic grounded aerospace conductor" wires with grounding straps running every which way that cost hundreds of dollars(for a set of wires?!). Why anyone would ever buy those is beyond me.
06-05-2008, 02:35 PM
#11
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Re: Major failure of MSD spark plug wires (GhostAccord)
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GhostAccord »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This could very easily have been avoided. As you mentioned constantly pulling at the wires to disconnect the plug at the dizzy is not the correct way to disconnect them. This will cause any plug wire with a 90 deg angle to fail. You are supposed to pull them from the dizzy socket via the plug boot. Your corrosion problem is obviously from a lack of dielectric grease that comes with the plugs. Those boots look as dry as a pop corn fart. Both of these failures are a product of poor maintenance.
Sorry about your lost track day... but this will happen to any plug wire you subject to these conditions not just MSD's.... Lesson learned.</TD></TR></TABLE>
so you're saying Honda does it wrong?? From the factory the wires were dry- never any dielectric grease on them at any point.
His failure is due to a cheap product( I dislike MSD)...never seen anything like this happen with OEM wires- only cheap after market products. NGK blues and Sumitomo OEM
Sorry about your lost track day... but this will happen to any plug wire you subject to these conditions not just MSD's.... Lesson learned.</TD></TR></TABLE>
so you're saying Honda does it wrong?? From the factory the wires were dry- never any dielectric grease on them at any point.
His failure is due to a cheap product( I dislike MSD)...never seen anything like this happen with OEM wires- only cheap after market products. NGK blues and Sumitomo OEM
06-05-2008, 06:52 PM
#12
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Re: Major failure of MSD spark plug wires (Evs-One)
Well that's funny because when ever I had my accord serviced at the dealership it always had dielectric grease added to the OEM wires. Maybe the dealership that my car was serviced at figured with our northern climate the dielectric grease was a bonus. I will always use it. It's used in every other wet weather connector in the engine bay. Why not the plug wires?
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