Well I broke my plug wires... 95 5SFE

[Rashaverakk]

Well I am attempting to figure out what's going on with the no-start issue on my car, and so far I've gotten:
Very yellow spark, so there is likely an ignition issue.

The car died when I was accelerating with traffic (Full throttle, and when the engine hit about 5500, the engine died and would not restart) Maybe a timing belt issue there.

At any rate, I was attempting to pull the plug wires, and they seem to have fused themselves in the plug tubes. I have broken 2 wires so far trying to get them out. Is there any good trick to digging out brittle plug wires so I don't have to spend a few hours chipping away at them after removing the valve cover gasket and plug tubes? every time I pull on them they just chip some more and become harder to get at.

Thanks!

[JustinC25]

Originally Posted by Rashaverakk

Well I am attempting to figure out what's going on with the no-start issue on my car, and so far I've gotten:
Very yellow spark, so there is likely an ignition issue.

The car died when I was accelerating with traffic (Full throttle, and when the engine hit about 5500, the engine died and would not restart) Maybe a timing belt issue there.

At any rate, I was attempting to pull the plug wires, and they seem to have fused themselves in the plug tubes. I have broken 2 wires so far trying to get them out. Is there any good trick to digging out brittle plug wires so I don't have to spend a few hours chipping away at them after removing the valve cover gasket and plug tubes? every time I pull on them they just chip some more and become harder to get at.

Thanks!

Aftermarket wires ALWAYS do this. Even after 5k miles. They just cant take the heat.
This is what I would do (and have done in the past.) Pull the wires out, grab as much of the fragments as possible with a pair of LONG needle nose pliers. It may be necessary to snap off the heads of the plugs to remove them, and all the pieces. Then just use your plug socket to remove what is left of the plugs. Replace with new Denso, or NGK plugs and install new Toyota wires. Factory wires last forever. I have the original set in my '95 that are 13 years old with 234k on them. No problems, and the ohm out ok too. Oh yeah, I can also pull them out at any time and they don't fall apart.

Hope this helps,
Justin

[Rashaverakk]

That's what I was afraid of. Last time I did the plugs, I was replacing a leaky valve cover gasket anyway, so I just removed the plug tubes to get in there and clean it up. that was the only way I could get it done last time. I may be doing that again

[Mike Gerber]

Try breaking them up with a long needle nose pliers as described above and/or a j-hook tool or a dental pick. Then use a shop vac to remove all the pieces from each spark plug well before removing the plugs themselves. You don't want any of this stuff falling in to the cylinders themselves.

I have to agree with JustinC25 about using Toyota OEM plug wires exclusively. I have a 94 Camry 5SFE engine with the original plug wires still on it with no problems. Only 87,000 miles on the car, but it is 14 years old. That's 14 years of Chicago winters.

Mike