Replace plug wires?

[Al and Renee]

My brother has a 1996 Outback wagon with automatic transmission. It is due
for a 60,000 mile service and is running fine. A service shop recommends
replacing the spark plug wires as preventative maintenance at 60k miles at a
cost of about $90. Seems unnecessary to me. Anyone have any experience
with how long the wires normally last?

Al in NJ

 

[WRXtreme]

You can probably get plug wires cheaper than that if you go aftermarket
rather than subaru direct. I would recommend replacing them around that
time though. Actually, on other vehicles I have changed them as early as
30k miles, but then again I am kinda particular about certain things.

 

[Jim Stewart]

My brother has a 1996 Outback wagon with automatic transmission. It is due
for a 60,000 mile service and is running fine. A service shop recommends
replacing the spark plug wires as preventative maintenance at 60k miles at a
cost of about $90. Seems unnecessary to me. Anyone have any experience
with how long the wires normally last?

Mine still look fine at 100k miles. On the other
hand, I have a '99 so mine are 3 years younger than
his. I was thinking of pulling mine off, cleaning
them and checking for cracks and arcing then putting
them back on if they look good. He might want to do
that.

 

[David Ryeburn]

My brother has a 1996 Outback wagon with automatic transmission. It is due
for a 60,000 mile service and is running fine. A service shop recommends
replacing the spark plug wires as preventative maintenance at 60k miles at a
cost of about $90. Seems unnecessary to me. Anyone have any experience
with how long the wires normally last?

My 1997 Legacy Outback has 262,000 km (about 163,000 mi) on it and the
original spark plug wires are working fine. You'll know when and if you
need new spark plug wires.

David

 

[Jack]

I replaced my wires on my Y2K Outback at 80,000 miles and it was
definitely time. I tested them with an ohm meter and they were shot.
When I went to replace them finding after market wires was extremely
difficult and about twice the price of the Subaru wires. The wires
from Subaru were around $35.

If you have any mechanical aptitude at all, replacing the wires is
easy. The replacement wires are marked 1-4, pull off one wire at a
time and replace that wire before moving to the next.

good luck

jb

 

[Jim Stewart]

I replaced my wires on my Y2K Outback at 80,000 miles and it was
definitely time. I tested them with an ohm meter and they were shot.
When I went to replace them finding after market wires was extremely
difficult and about twice the price of the Subaru wires. The wires
from Subaru were around $35.

How do you know that they were bad? I suspect
they are resistance wires.

 

[ceraboy]

My brother has a 1996 Outback wagon with automatic transmission. It
is due for a 60,000 mile service and is running fine. A service shop
recommends replacing the spark plug wires as preventative maintenance
at 60k miles at a cost of about $90. Seems unnecessary to me.
Anyone have any experience with how long the wires normally last?

Al in NJ

A simple resistance measurement with a cheap digital volt meter should
tell the condition of the wires internally. You may not be able to
find a spec. in ohms easily, but you can always compare to a new set or
just make sure they are all fairly close. I would not worry about the
wires until 100K unless you are experiencing any problems.

 

[Jack]

Jim

I would agree that they probably are resistance wires. When I checked
the resistence of the wires I would have expected them to all read
about the same if they were OK. Three of the four wires did read
about the same. The fourth wire was way off.

Before I changed them I had a very noticable miss in the engine under
load, after changing them the engine ran smoother and my mileage
jumped about 2 mpg.

Not totally scientific, but it seems right.

jb

 

[Sir D]

just buy a hi quality set from a suppler (abour $45 -60 cdn)
and install yourseld ...easy enough to do
Ian

Al and Renee wrote:

 

[Kurt C. Hack]

They are cheap enough that, since you are replacing your plugs anyway,
you may as well do them. DON'T get aftermarket parts though, stick with
the Subaru parts. They are the least expensive and are of good quality.

-Kurt

 

[Jim Stewart]

Jim

I would agree that they probably are resistance wires. When I checked
the resistence of the wires I would have expected them to all read
about the same if they were OK. Three of the four wires did read
about the same. The fourth wire was way off.

Before I changed them I had a very noticable miss in the engine under
load, after changing them the engine ran smoother and my mileage
jumped about 2 mpg.

Not totally scientific, but it seems right.
Agreed.



jb