Who's running the oldest set of spark plug wires? (1 Viewer)

[Tools R Us]

So if the resistance is greater than maximum the wires are junk?

Yes, but another reason to replace is electrical insulation. As the wires age the insulation hardens, becoming more prone to cracking, allowing electrical leakage, spark jump to ground, causing an intermittent miss. This happens most often when damp/wet.

It's more about age than mileage. In the old days we recommended replacing at 5-6 yrs, but plastics have improved, so now I have no problem with running them 10+ yrs.

 

[Manuelsv]

Ugh!!:whoops:
I just realized I have a 97, with wires marked 96!!! 200k, and 14 years Still runs awesome, probably have the original cap rotor,, etc..
Plugs are 10K fresh though
Guess I have a plan for the weekend,.. New Wires, cap and rotor on order!

 

[CowboyUp]

Ugh!!:whoops:
I just realized I have a 97, with wires marked 96!!! 200k, and 14 years Still runs awesome, probably have the original cap rotor,, etc..
Plugs are 10K fresh though
Guess I have a plan for the weekend,.. New Wires, cap and rotor on order!

Your cruiser wires are older the your cruiser !!!!!!!!

 

[option13]

My '94 still has the original wires AND plugs!!
70,000 miles and still runs great.
But now I'm gonna change them just out of embarassment.

 

['74 UA FJ]

I tested the resistance on my original wires (dated 1995) 10/20/2008, @121122 miles, and found the following:
#1) 7.35 K ohm
#2) 8.82 K ohm
#3) 12.52 K ohm
#4) 11.90 K ohm
#5) 15.26 K ohm
#6) 16.76 K ohm

FSM spec is "maximum 25 K ohm per cord"

Interestingly, you can see how, as the wires get longer, the resistance increases (duh), but I am wondering if, as you go further back towards higher heat exposure in the rear of the engine compartment, if the wires are "baked" into a higher resistance value over time??

Has anyone taken resistance readings from a new set for comparison with my numbers??

You are thinking too hard about this. Resistance in a material is a function of cross sectional area and length. The longer the wire, the higher the resistance.

 

[timer00]

My 94 has original tune up parts... wires are marked 1993 with 106k miles getting a tune up soon!!

 

[darnold87]

When I started this thread, I had no idea I would find spark plugs in my engine that were probably the originals. The were eroded to .066 to 0.070! It was still running great though. I'll post a pic of them tonight for others peoples opinions - they looked pretty good to me...

Oddly enough, I did an OEM tune-up (cap, rotor, plugs, wires, PVC and associated grommet and hoses), and now I have a little miss (or stumble) when its idling? Still trying to track that down...

 

[lndcruz]

When I started this thread, I had no idea I would find spark plugs in my engine that were probably the originals. The were eroded to .066 to 0.070! It was still running great though. I'll post a pic of them tonight for others peoples opinions - they looked pretty good to me...

Oddly enough, I did an OEM tune-up (cap, rotor, plugs, wires, PVC and associated grommet and hoses), and now I have a little miss (or stumble) when its idling? Still trying to track that down...

Ha, mine also had the original plugs which were surprisingly in ok condition.

I think these things could run on a box of matches.

 

[jvazquez53]

My 92 had the original wires until the distributor exploded and caught fire

 

[darnold87]

Here are my plugs with tons of miles...
What do you guys think of the color?

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Close up:

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Comparison to a new plug:

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[darnold87]

Bump - really curious on other folks' input on the spark plugs I took out...
Thank you...

 

[lndcruz]

They just look worn to me.

 

[cool breeze]

The burn looks normal to me but curious why the two middle ones are covered in oil...?

 

[darnold87]

I was thinking the sparkplug tube seals are probably leaking a little?
All the plugs were tough to remove. Had to back out, go back in, back out a little more, then back in, until they finally came out. Never had that before...

 

[jlg32281]

original wires, 1996 w/ 150k on them.

 

[Rusty Phillips]

informative thread.....

If your distributor cap / rotor are getting up in age (and definitely if they are original to the truck... 15 + years old) Id suggest getting new ones rom Toyota..... they are not exactly easy to get on Sunday afternoon when Toyota dealership is closed (call up autozone / napa / car quest / canadian tire and try).

Back in 2004 (at 190,000 miles) was running rough and my brother in law and I were changing spark plugs in his driveway, when we found a crack in my dist cap. Nobody had dist caps on hand. I ended up driving 5 hours to get home that sunday afternoon, worrying about that distributor cap the whole way.

I ended up ordering Dist cap / rotor from Car Quest (oops)

fast forward to Oct 2010 (320,000 miles) I now have a slight miss / stumble when starting up cold in the morning.... has gotten worse over the past couple weeks.... take things apart to check out the ignition system - the Car Quest rotor is cracked where the metal tab makes contact with the flat on the Dist shaft suspect it might fall apart shortly.... in addition - the spark plugs look like those in the picture in this thread, and on top of that i cracked the plastic retainer on one of the spark plug wires (so new plug wires too).

thank you Rick at Ralph Hayes Toyota (Anderson South Carolina) for hooking me up!!

 

[hzavarce]

I tested the resistance on my original wires (dated 1995) 10/20/2008, @121122 miles, and found the following:
#1) 7.35 K ohm
#2) 8.82 K ohm
#3) 12.52 K ohm
#4) 11.90 K ohm
#5) 15.26 K ohm
#6) 16.76 K ohm

FSM spec is "maximum 25 K ohm per cord"

Interestingly, you can see how, as the wires get longer, the resistance increases (duh), but I am wondering if, as you go further back towards higher heat exposure in the rear of the engine compartment, if the wires are "baked" into a higher resistance value over time??

Has anyone taken resistance readings from a new set for comparison with my numbers??

I replaced mine a month ago (also replaced rotor and cap), truck had 192,584 miles and the old cables had 1996 on them. I took readings of the old and new, and they both were almost the same

#1) 7.45(old), 7.31 (new)
#2) 9.18 (old), 8.88 (new)
#3) 12.63 (old), 12.81 (new)
#4) 11.59 (old), 12.96 (new)
#5) 14.98 (old), 15.10 (new)
#5) 17.09 (old), 17.04 (new)
Coil cable) 6.32 (old), 6.36 (new)

I also keep track of MPGs and after 5 full tanks (or 1,110 miles) have gained 0.6 MPG...can't really explain why the gain, but the numbers tell the story.

 

[1996LandCruiser]

Replaced the dizzy cap and rotor not long ago as pm. Plugs obviously have been done but wires are original. Truck has 161k.

jt

 

[azTony]

My plug wires were stamped 1993 on my 1993 LC replaced last April of 2010. I would think 17 years on the same plug wires is pretty good advertisement to replace with OEM.

 

[maybe_a_80...]

for those of you that replaced them, how much were the replacements and did you notice an improvement in performance?

Thanks

yes.

increase in MPG by about 1 MPG over 2000ish miles.

much cleaner idle.

better/more consistent power on the long climbs here in central colorado.

i did wires in conjunction with rotor, cap, plugs, and spark plug seals (valve cover was off for new valve cover gasket due to leaks), and new PCV hoses. also had new oil distributer o-ring and oil pump seal installed due to leaks at this time.

since this work I am burning barely any oil. before I was adding a quart every 1,000 miles.