How to Check a Car Plug Wire

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Nate McCullough on behalf of expertvillage.com. In this clip we are going to talk about one of the maintenance items involved in a major tune-up or vehicle overhaul. The items we are going to talk about in this clip are your spark plug wires. This here is one of your ignition cables also referred to as a spark plug wire. They should be inspected approximately every 50,000 miles. How do you remove a spark plug wire? Grip a hold of it by the top and give it a twist. The twist is going to break loose the rubber portion of it. This rubber boot protects against any kind of weather or foreign material contamination between the spark plug and the ignition cable connector. You’ve got a little dried grease on here, that’s not a problem. We are going to remove our spark plug wire by popping it out of its corresponding clips. We are going to give it a twist on the distributor cap and pop it off. Once you have the spark plug wire removed, you are going to want to either replace it out right or inspect it. What we are checking here for is any signs of abrasions, cracks. We don’t see any on this one. This plug wire would be okay to go ahead and reinstall. You reinstall them just by simply taking, seating the plug wire back in its galley and you are going to want to give a push. Let me lean down here. You can hear it click into place. That is what you are listening for. That means the plug wire is fully seated. We are going to take and place the plug wire back in its corresponding mounting clips and reinstall it on our distributor cap or coil pack. The number of plug wires and location is going to vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and depending on the type of engine in your car. This one happens to be a 4 cylinder, so there are four ignition cables. That procedure should be repeated for all 4 cylinders. "