How to Remove Valve Cover Plug Wires

Video Transcript

"Hello, I'm Mark Blocker. On behalf of Expert Village, in this segment, we're going to cover removing the plug wires. Prior to removing the plug wires we need to pay close attention to the order that the plug wires are installed. On a newer vehicle, or a vehicle with the original equipment still installed, the plug wires are numbered from the factory. This being a four cylinder engine, the plug wires would be numbered one through four because they are indicating cylinder. It's extremely important that the plug wire for which ever cylinder you remove it for goes back into the same cylinder again. The ignition is set on a timed basis and the correct spark has to go to the correct cylinder according to the firing order. So, we must ensure that we keep these plug wires in order, in the correct firing order, and back into the original slots. As you can see, the wiring is clipped into plastic looms which also snap, or bolt, or attach to the valve cover. If we leave all the wires in that loom, and remove them one at a time, you can leave the loom back and keep everything in its chronological order. If you look at the layout, it?s almost impossible to mix up the order itself by the plug wires. And just for safety procedure, or for common sense, if you'll take a ball point pen or felt marker and number them one through four. On this particular engine the cylinder number one is the closest one to the driver's side and they're numbered one, two, three, and four. And the engine numbering, if your unfamiliar with it, on most vehicles is the intake manifold on the runner itself where it connects to the head, there will be a casting. And it will cast the numbers one, two, and three, and four indicating the various cylinders so you can quickly go back and identify which cylinder is number one so you can number the plugs. It's just a little tip. If you number them before you remove them, then you can be sure that you put them back in the same place because it's extremely important. The vehicle will not run correctly. It may not start to run at all unless these plug wires are installed back in the original location. Watch our next segment on removing the plug wires part two."