1996 Civic D16Y7 Spark Plug Wire & Rotor/Cap

[AKhan87]

car idles fines and starts right up, unlike my Toyotas which take 2-3 seconds before starting up, this civic probably starts in a split second.

The civic seems to have original wires, distributor rotor & cap. Now I personally don't know of anyone who replaces the distributor rotor & cap ever...but honda-tech.com and others seem to suggest changing it. How would I know if mine needs changing? other then "OMG it is 18-19 years old" logic, is there a way of testing it? I figured I need a voltmeter to test the wires, what is the range suppose to be again?

An Acura tech suggests "Measure the resistance, over 25k Ohms, replace (you will usually see 7-10k Ohms) A cheap multimeter is cheaper than a new set of wires replaced needlessly. Then with engine running, mist wires with water and watch for arcing. This will tell you if the insulation is cracked. If you see arcing, replace all the wires. I have never seen a set of wires go bad with less than 200K on the odometer."

There is a really good deal from AAP currently. All of these items have limited lifetime replacement, which sounds awesome. I have until Saturday to score free home shipping, so please let me know your suggestions soon, Thank You.

NGK spark plug wires 32.48 + tax shipped
BWD distributor rotor 11.39 + tax shipped
BWD distributor cap 10.25 + tax shipped

Since this is related to spark, I forgot to mention I easily get 32-33 mpg @ 70-80mph highway which falls in the range of the EPA suggested mpg for my car.

 

[4IsWEm]

If all plastics are in order, some cleaning will probably do for another as many years.
Just clean the contacts in the cap and the rotor (scrape them to remove the salts that form there). Also clean the connectors of the cables.

Then put a spark plug on each spark-plug-cable-end (one cable at a time), touch the sparkplug on a metallic spot on the engine and crank it. If you get a good fat spark, all is ok.

 

[toneydoc]

If it isn't broken, then don't fix it. Keep driving it and fix her when she does break.

 

[fdcg27]

Your first clue as to whether the cap, rotor and wires should be replaced will be a no-start or very difficult to start condition on a cool, damp morning.
IMHO, these parts should be replaced as PM at some point.
After only 18 years and 178K, you might have reached that point.

 

[Chris Meutsch]

I would always change mine when doing tune-ups. New plugs/wires/cap and rotor are cheap insurance.

My brother's wife had a 1997 Civic that would start instantly. I mean like not even turn over one cylinder and it was running.

 

[AKhan87]

Originally Posted By: Chris Meutsch
I would always change mine when doing tune-ups. New plugs/wires/cap and rotor are cheap insurance.

My brother's wife had a 1997 Civic that would start instantly. I mean like not even turn over one cylinder and it was running.


mine is exactly like that, amazing car, my celica gt-s has amazing power & decent gas mileage...but for some reason I am stuck on these 96-00 civics, I am not sure what it is, I absolutely love them.

 

[PandaBear]

I used to change the cap and rotor every 30k religiously, but I haven't done that in the last 90k miles and took them out to sand off any buildup / corrosion instead. They don't wear that much, but if you clean or replace them the car do run slightly smoother. What I do found is there seems to be deposit on the 4 terminals inside the cap where the rotor fire into, and the rotor's edge do get a bit burnt (turning brownish and blackish) after a while.

I had no problem with plug wires, and the last time I changed them was due to emission warranty fix that Acura gave out for free: free cap / rotor / wire / plugs / and oil change. I also heard that if the cap or wires are bad they usually have problem in wet weather. Anyways, they are cheap enough that I'd buy a set once in a while (like 100k) and keep the old one as spare.

 

[Gokhan]

Probably the only thing worth replacing is the rotor. The contacts on the cap wear out too but the cap is a lot more expensive. Wires should last forever under normal conditions.

In my Toyota distributor, and possibly in your Honda distributor as well, the part that wears out most is unfortunately not replaceable. It's the governor-advance shaft. They don't put enough and/or quality grease in it and it tends to weld after a while and governor advance stops working. I had to replace my whole distributor because of that. In the brand-new distributor I put about fifteen years ago, I relubricated the shaft with synthetic moly grease two years ago. Old grease was already deteriorating. You need to disassemble the entire distributor to get to it.

 

[surfstar]

I used to blindly replace dist cap/rotor and plug wires at 90k intervals based on "car board's" advice.

Now I test the plug wires (never found any in need of replacement). When I bought my Civic, it had 140k miles, so I replaced the cap/rotor with OEM parts. Figuring do it once, do it right. If the factory OEM parts made it this far, I only need to replace them one time to last the rest of the car's life. Same with the thermostat (which actually needed it). Spend maybe $40ish more by going OEM on those three parts. You can easily see a different in build quality, though.
Despite the new parts and new plugs too, mpg did not go up notably!

So, I'd say go OEM if you're doing them or not at all.

 

[AKhan87]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
I used to change the cap and rotor every 30k religiously, but I haven't done that in the last 90k miles and took them out to sand off any buildup / corrosion instead. They don't wear that much, but if you clean or replace them the car do run slightly smoother. What I do found is there seems to be deposit on the 4 terminals inside the cap where the rotor fire into, and the rotor's edge do get a bit burnt (turning brownish and blackish) after a while.

I had no problem with plug wires, and the last time I changed them was due to emission warranty fix that Acura gave out for free: free cap / rotor / wire / plugs / and oil change. I also heard that if the cap or wires are bad they usually have problem in wet weather. Anyways, they are cheap enough that I'd buy a set once in a while (like 100k) and keep the old one as spare.


This is what I'm talking about, awesome info, what did you sand it off with? I have a wire brush, would that be safe enough to use?

 

[AKhan87]

Yay mine read 7.39k, 8.40k, 10.17k, 10.81k ohms from the distributor to the timing belt facing the car.

Next are cap & rotor cleaning, any suggestion on how to would be great.

 

[Bud_One]

Originally Posted By: surfstar


So, I'd say go OEM if you're doing them or not at all.


+1

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: 01_celica_gt
Yay mine read 7.39k, 8.40k, 10.17k, 10.81k ohms from the distributor to the timing belt facing the car.

Next are cap & rotor cleaning, any suggestion on how to would be great.


Even though they checked out okay with respect to resistance, that doesn't take into account, failing insulation. The majority of "bad" wires I've personally seen have been insulation failures. Several have been new replacements; albeit the low cost second line replacements.

 

[garlicbreadman]

Use only oem parts for honda ignition systems...

 

[AKhan87]

Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Originally Posted By: 01_celica_gt
Yay mine read 7.39k, 8.40k, 10.17k, 10.81k ohms from the distributor to the timing belt facing the car.

Next are cap & rotor cleaning, any suggestion on how to would be great.


Even though they checked out okay with respect to resistance, that doesn't take into account, failing insulation. The majority of "bad" wires I've personally seen have been insulation failures. Several have been new replacements; albeit the low cost second line replacements.

Update:

I tried the method suggested by the acura/honda tech, with the engine running sprayed water and watched for any arcing. I saw no arcing, did attempt it at night for visibility to help identify arcing better.

I went to junkyard and tested 4 OEM sets of spark plug wires. Apparently OEM wires are dated for the year they were made.

1. Made by Sews dated 1998(same year as the 1998 Honda Civic it came off of)
2. Made by Sumitomo dated 2004
3. Made by Sumitomo dated 2005
4. Made by Prestolite dated 2009

All tested: (Ohms)
Cylinder 1 11.1-11.7k
Cylinder 2 10.1-10.8k
Cylinder 3 8.4-8.7k
Cylinder 4 7.3-7.6k

I bought some NGK wires for $32 and some change
NGK tested: (Ohms)
Cylinder 1 6.09k
Cylinder 2 5.30k
Cylinder 3 4.18k
Cylinder 4 3.59k

The random(had no markings of the brand) aftermarket spark plug wires I tested at the junk yard had the same pattern of increasing resistance as the length of wire increased as the NGK & OEM wires, though the random aftermarket were (1.5-4.0)k ohms in range.

I did buy the set of OEM Sumitomo 2005 wires from the junkyard for $3.96.

Since the range suggested by the Acura/Honda tech seemed to be (7-10)k ohms, do you guys think I should return the NGK wires as they are not even in the range specified?

Also would there be a special way of storing the extra set of Sumitomo wire I bought? like a big ziplock? away from moisture and all that stuff or just store it however.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: 01_celica_gt
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
I used to change the cap and rotor every 30k religiously, but I haven't done that in the last 90k miles and took them out to sand off any buildup / corrosion instead. They don't wear that much, but if you clean or replace them the car do run slightly smoother. What I do found is there seems to be deposit on the 4 terminals inside the cap where the rotor fire into, and the rotor's edge do get a bit burnt (turning brownish and blackish) after a while.

I had no problem with plug wires, and the last time I changed them was due to emission warranty fix that Acura gave out for free: free cap / rotor / wire / plugs / and oil change. I also heard that if the cap or wires are bad they usually have problem in wet weather. Anyways, they are cheap enough that I'd buy a set once in a while (like 100k) and keep the old one as spare.


This is what I'm talking about, awesome info, what did you sand it off with? I have a wire brush, would that be safe enough to use?


I just used whatever sandpaper I have in stock, they aren't precision equipment anyways.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: 01_celica_gt


Since the range suggested by the Acura/Honda tech seemed to be (7-10)k ohms, do you guys think I should return the NGK wires as they are not even in the range specified?

Also would there be a special way of storing the extra set of Sumitomo wire I bought? like a big ziplock? away from moisture and all that stuff or just store it however.

Thanks for any suggestions.


Wires can tolerate room temp and moisture if it can handle your car's engine bay, no need to zip lock them. It is the firing voltage (tens of thousands of volt) that break down the insulation and the pulling / pushing that break down the structural strength of the wire.

I'd not worry about some reduction in resistance, they are not that big of a deal when there are already that much resistance inside the plugs and the plug gap and edge sharpness have much bigger role in whether the plug fires or not.

 

[antiqueshell]

Best to use OEM parts for the cap and rotor. You can buy those things on line pretty cheaply.