$90 for spark plug wires?????? HELP PLEASE!!!!

[HappyGilmore]

my engine was missing and i replaced them with Auto lites and it solved the problem for a week. when it came back i said screw it and i took it to a shop. the diagnosed it with bad wires so they put motorcraft ones in and it worked. i got my money back on the autolites and its ran great for 15k miles. maybe i just had a bum set idk.

 

[97BlackX5.0]

ive had the advance auot parts wires... xact go bad on me immed or as soon as they get hot a few times...Hate autozone and love advance though.... Just dont buy bottom barrel on important parts.

 

[churd69]

thanks for all the help guys! I went with the motorcrafts. Got set up by a guy my dad knows for $70.

-rich

 

[whoathere]

thats a very good deal on those wires.

 

[Nava-Trac]

TAYLOR Plug Wires: $79

Forget the Mo-Craft, Advance, AutoZone crap & get a set of Taylor Thunderbolt wires from SummitRacing.com for $65 + s/h = $79, P/N: TAY-82632. I ordered these on Wed & got 'em on Thurs! Summit's really fast on the shipping.

These are a far superior upgrade from the other 'just-get-by' wires that will only be effective for 3-4 years.

I put these on this morning & immediately detected an improved, smoother idle & improved responsiveness/power.

With all that said, the 4.0L is still kind of a sluggish design, especially considering the displacement & the potential that is not fully exploited by Ford or the aftermarket set. That's kind of ashame because of the massive 3 of Explorers out there. I guess soccer-moms don't really like getting their hands dirty. LOL.

I'll report back on any changes re: MPG. From the looks of it, I may get 0.5-1.0 better MPG. Still, that 4.0 doesn't help much w/ the economy. The dangd-est thing is that my buddy w/ an expedition 5.4L gets BETTER MPG than this Sport-trac & the Navajo I had for many years. I average about 14-16MPG, he gets 17-19! And, he drives about the same way as me. Nonetheless, my wife seems to push 17-19mpg when she drives, so the lead-foot does matter.

One more point to make - I bought this Sport-trac about 3 years ago because the price was super-cheap compared to others of this model ($9000). That was due to high mileage, but I got the idea that the engine had been replaced by the mfr. There were just a lot of little hints + the powertain was almost spotless- too spotless for a vehicle w/ 125K miles.

As such, I decided to forget the gas mileage justification because my other choices were around $15 - $17K - back then, & even today, I still haven't spent anywhere near $6K (the price diff) on gas. So, I didn't flinch on the high miles. To this day, I haven't had any powertrain trouble. Since I had my 1992 Navajo for 14 years prior to the SportTrac, I knew that 200K miles w/ attentive maintenance was easily attained before major stuff started to fail (except for the crappy 5-speed Trans & noisy suspension of the 1st Gen era).

After all of that, if I was to spend higher dollars on a SportTrac, I would get a 4WD because a 2WD of this kind of 'truck' is a bit of a joke - you almost should just buy a sedan, or a station wagon. But again, price made my decision. If I had to pay any more than say $12k, I wouldn't even consider a 2wd SportTrac.


Anyway, back to the spark plug wires - if you're gonna keep your ride for some time, I would say get the Taylors, or at least something as heavy-duty.

 

[35Remmy]

Yes, Xacts are an Advance Auto house brand.

I've used Autolite Professionals for years, never a problem.

Nava-Trac, I know...the 4.0's are absolute PIGS on gas. I think they have GREAT power around town....but on the highway, say getting from 55-70, I'm pushing her a little over 3k RPM's. I guess this motor makes ALL of its power down low, b/c it has no grunt up at higher RPM's.

Have you had the same experience?

 

[Nava-Trac]

Ya Mon,
But maybe I've got a different geat than you - I think I'm at 3k rpm around 75-80. Since I put in the new plug wires, I've noticed a much better response in accel at the 35-60mph range. There's a strange surging at 3500rpms at idle - however, who needs to rev that high at idle?
I need to view some of the posts about 5.0L or other V8s for this model. I'm sure there's plenty on that topic. for a vehivle this weight, I think a V8 is more suited & would get better economy (less stress on the engine due to less work/cu, in).

Anyway, I'm primarily a Mopar guy...which is a whole other set of rants .

Good luck on your Expl.

 

[Nava-Trac]

Aw nutz! I said '...geat than you...' I meant 'GEAR than you'. oops

 

[tmcphail]

Not sure what year your vehicle is but this is what we sell the OEM Ford wires for

Mechanical Catalog
Item Number MSRP Core Price Price
XU2Z12259EA $91.51 $0.00 $45.03
Electrical - Ignition system - Cable set
Cable set, explorer, mountaineer, 4.0l, sohc 1997 - 1999

 

[ThePhoenix]

02 FORD EXPLORER Spark Plug Wire Set MOTORCRAFT WR6096

$31 off rockauto ebay store...

 

[Lloyd10977]

Yes, Xacts are an Advance Auto house brand.

I've used Autolite Professionals for years, never a problem.

Nava-Trac, I know...the 4.0's are absolute PIGS on gas. I think they have GREAT power around town....but on the highway, say getting from 55-70, I'm pushing her a little over 3k RPM's. I guess this motor makes ALL of its power down low, b/c it has no grunt up at higher RPM's.

Have you had the same experience?

My 95 Limited 4.0 (rebuilt 4 speed auto with 373 gears) revs 2200-2400 RPM at 70mph, and at 65mph it is 2100-2200 rpm. I am happy with my 22-24 mpg highway mileage. Before the rebuild I was not getting full lockup in O/D and was running 3100rpm at 67mph and 16-17 mpg.

 

[ThePhoenix]

I am very surprised no one has mentioned my good deal on motorcraft wires from rockauto...yet $70 is a good deal for same wires?

 

[manaen]

There's a strange surging at 3500rpms at idle - however, who needs to rev that high at idle?
.

You're hitting the rev limiter, the ECU is setup to not rev much over 3k without being in gear.

 

[jpserra]

You get what you pay for. It's not the price but the quality you need to look at.

Reliability is a first concern.
Low impedance is a second concern, allowing for better ignition, hotter spark and better mileage.

Cheap wires mean higher impedance and worse gas mileage and degraded performance.

Pay the $100 for decent set of wires and stay away from really cheap wires.

JP

 

[ThePhoenix]

mine were M-O-T-O-R-C-R-A-F-T wires for $35 bucks...STOCK Motorcraft wires

fine...pay too much, see if I care

 

[jpserra]

Motorcraft just means they are "standard" grade wires. If you want performance and better mileage, you need to compare specs on the wires and buy the lowest impedance wires you can find.

Better for mileage.
Better for performance.

JP

And don't yell at me. I'm just telling the facts.

 

[Joe Dirt]

i still go there for things like cams, pistons, rods, stuff thats solid and has no moving or electrical parts. i even remeber they tested a starter for my little brothers car, and said it was fine. we had him get a new part from the shelf and test it, it about jumped clear off the table, thats the one we took home and put on. I'll stick with koi and oem parts that lasted for 100K+ miles before the failed.

Lemme get this right- you won't buy an alternator from AutoZone, but you're ok with cams, pistons and rods?!?! Man... I wouldn't want to chance having to pull an engine for using those components from AZ.

I have a buddy who worked there to get the discount, then quit because the parts were overpriced vs. the performance of them- even after his discount!

 

[ThePhoenix]

sorry JP...I realize that came off wrong. I should have put a smiley at the end..didnt mean to yell! appoliogies

yes, stock wires were good enough for me...for $35

 

[CDW6212R]

Motorcraft just means they are "standard" grade wires. If you want performance and better mileage, you need to compare specs on the wires and buy the lowest impedance wires you can find.

Better for mileage.
Better for performance.

JP

And don't yell at me. I'm just telling the facts.

JP, may I suggest that you do a lot more research, because you are very wrong about the importance of the impedance of spark plug wires. Find the Magnecor website and learn the myths regarding spark plug wires.

Plug wires do not transmit the spark charge down the center electrode of the wires. The charge that fires the plugs travels around the electrode, in the windings of the wires. Measuring the impedance of the center electrode does not accurately reflect the ability of the wires. A change from stock impedance specs does point to a break down in the wires. This is why you can have a break down of a plug wire and not be able to measure it, or the opposite, measure a poor impedance yet the wire seems to work fine. Plug wires can cause more problems by bleeding/leaking interference out into other electronics, and that is also not measurable with the ohmmeter. The jacket of a spark plug wire is the most critical part of it. Either don't buy cheap wires, or throw them away after about two years.

Magnecor wires do not have the lowest impedance of their wire's electrodes, but they do transmit more power to spark plugs. They do it more easily, and the biggest factor is that they last longer. The windings and jacket construction are far better than 99% of all other plug wires.

Torrie, that is a great price for the 2nd gen. plug wires. It's good to know that the later 2002+ wires are even cheaper, thanks Phoenix.

BTW, I have Motorcraft wires on my 99 SOHC, because of the warantee. Ford parts are not middle of the road quality, they are a standard, a high standard which exceeds most other parts makers. I selectively buy Ford when possible, the best if it is by someone else, and the lesser parts store stuff if it's not important. Regards,