I think its time to do a tune up on my vehicle and was thinking of doing it myself. I've got a CEL that came on shortly after replacing the catalytic converter and one of the shops where I took it said it was the coil packs and the other said coil packs and wires. I have over a 100K miles on the vehicle now, and from what I've read on the forum so far, usually around this time a tune up is suggested. I was thinking of replacing all of the coil packs and wires and postponing doing the suspension work for now, lower ball joints, control arm bushings and so forth.

My questions are: best place for OEM parts, I've heard of autohaus, rock auto, but I came across autopartswearhouse and was wondering if anyone had done business with them before? There prices seem reasonable, but just wanted to see if anybody had done business with them before and if, their parts are truely OEM or not. They are asking $180 for the coil packs (all 8 of them) and $120 for the plug wires. I'm replacing my taillight assembly too, and they are selling a pair of them for $100. Also, is there a special tool to get those two back coil packs off without having to remove a lot of stuff? If so, what is the tool call and where can I find it? Is there a special way to remove the plug wires w/o getting them crossed up when I replace with the new ones? Just asking.

The two mechanics I had look at it told me the #3 & #6 cyclinders were missing, and were pretty fouled. Would that also mean that the coil packs affecting those two cyclinders need to be replaced? Is there a way of testing them to determine if they are bad or should all 8 of them be replaced along witht plug wires?

 

90 % of the time the coil packs are fine. Ive only replaced them a few times in 13 yrs. usually the wires are the cause of misfire. hold off on the coil packs and do the spark plugs and wires first. Unless they know for sure the coils are bad, which I kinda doubt.

 

Thanks for the quick response. I'd much rather do the wires than having to replace the coil packs at this time. Another question: is there a tool I can purchase to test the wires to see if they are working properly? I thought I read somewhere that you can use a probe of some kind to test the wires? Can I get one from any local automotive store.

 

You can test the resistance, I think it should be 2ohms. It might even have it stamped on the wire end. just use a multimeter, and go from one end to the other end of the wire. or test all of them and then compare the values between all of the wires.