Ummm...weird.

[Blizzard96]

Last Tuesday I had my car diagnosed for my SES light that flashed once and had stayed solid for a week. Diagnosed as wires/plugs/fuel filter...
So for a week I've had a solid SES light and for about two weeks I've had a stuttering under acceleration problem that has gotten a little worse.

The dealership said my wires are breaking down and I needed to replace my plugs too. Wires are 2 years old and plugs almost 1 year old. Oh well...replace the wires, replace the plugs too. But I decided to just replace the fuel filter yesterday. I drove about 5 miles yesterday and then 30 miles today and the SES light turned off.

I still have the hesitation...so I'm guessing that it really is the plugs/wires. My question is why the SES turned off yet I still have the hesitation. The fuel filter didn't look too bad...the pleats were medium brown with a little sludge in the back of the filter but I could blow air through it.

[hockeyman]

Don't know why your SES Light went off. Maybe it got tired...J/K. I had a poblem with my 3.8 engine hesitating, and it was my #6 Spark Plug Wire. If you have the 93-97 3.8, replace your plugs and wires, but when you put the passenger side plug wires on this time, make SURE they aren't resting on your Intake Manifold. GM had a recall on the 95-97 3.8's because the #6 Spark Plug Wire was resting on the Intake Manifold causing it to burn out and arc, ultimately causing the misfire. Replacing the Spark Plugs is just a good thing to do while you're under there. Get ready for some major swearing though!!! You'll know what I'm talking about once you try to get the two rear Spark Plugs on the passnger side out. They are a *****!! (pregnant female dog).

Marc

[Loochy88]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by hockeyman:
They are a *****!! (pregnant female dog).

Marc<hr></blockquote>

Actually, i believe that a female dog that is not pregnant could also be called a *****

[MCGusto]

That sounds like the EXACT problem I had about 2 months ago and changing the wires, plugs, and fuel filter fixed it. And Hockyman aint BS'in when he says its a pain in the azz...and the hands. My knuckles are still recovering..hahaha But i would suggest doing it yourself rather than paying the money and having someone else do it. That way you can make sure you run the wires right..and not have to worry about some lazy **** running them the "easy" way. It took me about 5-6 hours to do the plugs and wires.

[black98V6]

the flashing light means a misfire is happening at that very moment.. a solid light means a code has been set go get it scanned.. what happened was the motor detected a misfire.. set the light.. you kept driving around but proably didn't get on it hard enough to detect another.. and after a predetermined number of driving cycles there was no misfire so it turned off the light.. now if you haven't fixed the plug/wire problem and you were to romp on it again you will get a flashing light again and then the light will stay on.. scan the codes and you will find more than one entry about a misfire being detected..

[Blizzard96]

Thats what I thought. I had driven the car over two weeks with the solid light and was surprised to see it turn off. Either way I'm still going to replace the wires and plugs.

[sped214]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by hockeyman:
...when you put the passenger side plug wires on this time, make SURE they aren't resting on your Intake Manifold...<hr></blockquote>

Is there another way of routing the wires? How did you route yours so they weren't resting on the manifold? I would love to avoid this, but didn't see an obvious way around having them routed over the manifold...

[black98V6]

you can get yourself some cheap plastic wire separators and use them to hold the wires over the manifold..
or you can also use wire looms.. put the 3 wires each in an individual loom then put all 3 in another bigger loom.. what I have done and seems to work well is put each wire in an individual loom AND use wire separators to act as spacers

also just got an idea.. you can take some wire separators and epoxy little feet on them to get the wires more off the intake.. personally I haven't had problems with heat and the intake manifold (though I can see how bare plug wires could be a problem) my biggest problem was the exhaust burning the wires..

in reality you don't want your wires touching anything in the engine compartment.. but that is an ideal situation and can be overcome with wire looms, zip ties and wire separators.. really though man those wire separators can be your best friend..
that and plenty of light under the car and underhood when you are donig all this.. the more light you have the more likely you are to see something that could cause a problem..

[hockeyman]

I wrapped the three wires in header tape. I have about 50' of it, and if anyone needs a few inches of it to wrap your wires in, let me know. I'll send some to you. It'll NEVER burn through! Also, if you hae a Strut Tower Brace installed, you can hang your wires from it to keep them from touching the intake manifold. That normally doesn't get hot enough to crisp our wires.

Marc