Can A Bad Set Of Plug Wires Cause Phantom Knock?

[kchaazz]

Hello there. i get 43 counts of knock at any throttle point below 3000 rpm. When i get past 3000, let off the gas then hit it again, wow, no knock. I know my lifters are a bit ticky, have new 6es plugs, no boost leaks, however, two of my new plug wires came apart where the boots hook to the plugs when i went to pull the wires from the plugs to see if my plugs were fouled or something, and i just put the wires back together with a pair of pliers and it would seem that the phantom knock came on after that? Im not sayiny that the boots came off the wire, im saying that the metal part that actually connects to the spark plug came off the wire, has anyone else had this happen? please respond, im desperate to fix this , its pissing me off to the point that if it wasnt my daily driver, id bust out the windows, beat the body with a bat, and light it on fire just to see the car burn. im really tired of the problems i get with this thing, i take great care of this car and am trying really hard to fix it up nice and i dont beat on this car either, im just too scared to, its a dsm, you know?

any help will be appreciated.

 

[DSM90AWD]

Do you have your old wires? If so why not just swap them in to see if it helps.
As for noticing PK, did you datalog your car at all before the plug wire "incident"?

 

[kchaazz]

Well, i bought the new plugs and wires cause i was getting stutter at full boost, never had pk before on the logger, also the plugs/wires fixed the stutter problem. im just wondering if an ignition problem can cause pk?

thanks, charles

 

[Kapok6]

Hello there. i get 43 counts of knock at any throttle point below 3000 rpm. When i get past 3000, let off the gas then hit it again, wow, no knock. I know my lifters are a bit ticky, have new 6es plugs, no boost leaks, however, two of my new plug wires came apart where the boots hook to the plugs when i went to pull the wires from the plugs to see if my plugs were fouled or something, and i just put the wires back together with a pair of pliers and it would seem that the phantom knock came on after that? Im not sayiny that the boots came off the wire, im saying that the metal part that actually connects to the spark plug came off the wire, has anyone else had this happen? please respond, im desperate to fix this , its pissing me off to the point that if it wasnt my daily driver, id bust out the windows, beat the body with a bat, and light it on fire just to see the car burn. im really tired of the problems i get with this thing, i take great care of this car and am trying really hard to fix it up nice and i dont beat on this car either, im just too scared to, its a dsm, you know?

any help will be appreciated.

I just want to let you know I have the same phantom knock problem w/ my car and I wanna do the same thing to it, w/ and Bat, Axe, and a Bazooka.

 

[DSM90AWD]

Well, i bought the new plugs and wires cause i was getting stutter at full boost, never had pk before on the logger, also the plugs/wires fixed the stutter problem. im just wondering if an ignition problem can cause pk?

If one of your damaged plug wires is arcing against the head you may get misfires which the ECU would register as knock. PK is like DSM Cancer, there are many unexplained causes yet no definitive cure (save an EPROM mod/ DSMLink).

I would start by replacing your plug wires with known good ones (return the new ones if under warranty)

 

[turboAWDfanatic]

I know this is an ANCIENT thread, but I wanted to bring it back to help anybody that's trying to diagnose PK. I had severe PK for over a year and tried everything to try and fix it, but never thought that plug wires could be the cause. My NGK plug wires were old, but I had checked the resistance w/ my multi-meter and they checked out fine, so I didn't change them. A few months ago, I started to get misfiring at full boost, so naturally, I decided to replace my plug wires since they were old. Not thinking that they had anything to do w/ my PK issue, I threw on a set of Magnecor wires. To my surprise, not only did the misfiring disappear, but so did the PK!

 

[decathect]

what were the symptoms? Were you getting it all the time, or part of the time? I'm curious, cause this is one of the few things I haven't tried to fix my PK.

 

[Bluesideup]

Misfires and knock were a big problem on the Jeep Magnum V8s. Even new the wires would arc to eachother and fire the plugs at the wrong times. Jeep put out a TSB to reroute the plug wires which generally fixed the problem. On a DSM I would say some good quality plug wires could make a big difference from cheap or old wires.

 

[ToughTalon]

I know this is an ANCIENT thread, but I wanted to bring it back to help anybody that's trying to diagnose PK. I had severe PK for over a year and tried everything to try and fix it, but never thought that plug wires could be the cause. My NGK plug wires were old, but I had checked the resistance w/ my multi-meter and they checked out fine, so I didn't change them. A few months ago, I started to get misfiring at full boost, so naturally, I decided to replace my plug wires since they were old. Not thinking that they had anything to do w/ my PK issue, I threw on a set of Magnecor wires. To my surprise, not only did the misfiring disappear, but so did the PK!

You want to be very carefull (or just not do it) when checking plug wires with a Multimeter. A multimeter emits a very low voltage and 'looks' for that same voltage to measure resistance. If it gets the same voltage back it will read no resistance, or low Ohms.
A plug wire can have low resistance but could still be defective. The problem with plug wires is the insulation, the ignition produces so much electrical voltage that it can "push" through the insulation. A redneck method to check plug wires is to spray the plug wires with water and put a small load on the engine and see if it missfires worse, this is the easiest to do when you have an engine scanner that shows engine missfire events in real time. When you spray the wires with water it makes the insulating properties of the wire worse and will amplify a problem so it is easier to find.

Just for reference, like Blueside said, routing plug wires makes a huge difference on their performance and life span.

In an ideal world ( which never happens, but for the sake of theory) the plug wires shouldnt touch any metal or each other.

 

[turboAWDfanatic]

Good info, thx!

 

[kchaazz]

Well, I apologize for not having been back to this thread in so long. In short, my solution to my pk trouble was to buy a set of 3g lifters. Easy to install, quiets the motor down nicely, and, in my case, solved a terrible drivability issue!! Definetly worth a shot for those who have ticky lifters and pk.