Would a bad sparkplug wire cause:

Hi Everyone,

I've had a problem for the past 3 years and it's gotten worse
as the time has gone on. It's a 1997 Buick Riviera 3.8 supercharged
engine. Two problems are it will just stall while sitting at a red
light (sometimes it catches itself though) and second, at around 160
degrees the car wont start, it just turns over. Recently it stalled
going 45MPH.

So I changed my sparkplug's and sparkplug wires today for the first
time ever. I only have 85,000 miles so the plugs should still be good
(GM claims 100,000 miles, yeah right). Anyway, I noticed that when I
removed the #4 sparkplug wire from coil, the connector on the coil was
completely rusted. I wire brushed the connector and made it shiney
again and continued on. After I was done I checked the OHM's of each
old sparkplug cable. The number 4 cable didn't read anything at all. I
cut the boot off and it appears that the metal wire within the
sheathing was rusted off. It appeared to still be in the cable
(somewhat) but was not touching the connector that touches the coil at
all.

The car otherwise runs fine with no loss of power or knocking, etc. It
passed emmisions inspection. So my question are:

1. Could my car run without sparkplug 4 OR is there enough voltage
being pumped out at the coil that the spark could make it through the
air, to the wire within the plug wire and still have enough juice to
generate a spark at the #4 plug?

2. Would having one spark plug out stop a car from starting?

See picture at: http://www.wildlifereserve.org/sparkplug.jpg

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Would a bad sparkplug wire cause:
    ... > So I changed my sparkplug's and sparkplug wires today for the first ... > removed the #4 sparkplug wire from coil, the connector on the coil was ... I wire brushed the connector and made it shiney ... to the wire within the plug wire and still have enough juice to ...
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