My 97 F150 seems to eat plug wires a lot. I use Motorcraft wires. The truck started missing intermittenly and I've grown used to that feeling. Sure enough, I pop the hood in the dark and it looks like a christmas tree on the driver's side.

I have a 4.6 Jasper reman in the truck with about 2k miles. I used the same plug wires because they are only 8 months old.

Is there a better plug wire out there?

 

That's very strange. Usually wires exposed to horrible living conditions will do better than that. Yes, there are better plug wires out there than MC, just like everything else. But, sometimes you may have to pay for that quality. Taylor, MSD, and LiveWire are all beyond excellent products with LiveWire arguably being the best; they're my favorite anyways. And they look so bad a$$, I even wish my truck still had plug wires just so I could still have a set. Had these on my '97 4.6 and a few mustangs. Awesome product. Only plug wires I run.

http://www.performancedistributors.com/livewire.htm

 

Thanks - that's worth looking at. After all, the price for my truck is only about $30 higher than the MC wires in my area.

 

I would suggest routing them different or putting some type of covering over them because heat must be breaking them down. Only other thing it could possibly be is a coil shorting out but i would bet on the heat.

 

That is strange. I have a really nice set of wires on my Mustang Malloy I think but the stock motorcraft wires that came on these trucks are not junk.. I would suspect something is causing them to fail that no mater what wire you get your gonna have the same problem.. Make sure you have them secured and all. routed away from high heat sources and all that..

 

That is NOT normal for MC wires. You can get a bad part in any brand once in a while but 3 sets in 2 years is not MC failure. I'm betting even a change of brands isn't going to end that. High resistance causing a breakdown? Are they bought from a source that you are reasonably sure is actually MC and NOT counterfeit? There are more counterfeit product in every brand name than you can even imagine. Not saying that's the problem but don't say "it can't be". They counterfeit stuff in major brand names of all kinds that aren't near as expensive as those plug wires.

 

All three sets came from Adavnce Auto. I did make an error - the first set was AC-Delco, or maybe it was Autolite. I can't remember now. I bought them because they did not have MC in stock and I didn't want to wait. The truck had 152k when I changed the OEM wires. I bought a cheap set before those three. The cheapies didn't last 3 months.

Maybe something is throwing too much juice through 'em.

 

Make sure you take the time and effort to run them EXACTLY the way they came from the factory. Make certain they are secure and dont vibrate around to much. I've lost wire sets before from not having them properly secure.. If you have broken looms replace them..

 

I do have a couple of broken looms. I'll replace those before I replace the wires. Thanks for all the suggestions and tips everyone.

 

Yes, for sure replace the looms.

FYI- I went on a wild goose chase up here in Canada for them in in November- all I could find where universals. Then went to an auto wreckers and got em. cut the wires and pulled them through the looms.

Good luck.

 

You got mice under the hood?
What do the wires look like? Are they rotted out? Rubbing together? Hot spots?

 

Stock Motorcraft wires are $59.79 at rockauto.com. They are as good as any for your engine. Have you been using dielectric grease in the boots at each end?

 

Yes to the grease, and thanks for rockauto. MC wires here are ~$90.

 

Why do you always ask such hard questions?

 

Yes, and they haven't been paying their rent!, furthermore their rubbery breath is getting to me. Negative to the last 3. Any more questions Brew?