"Shocking" experience with my Camry - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

tundra2287 · 08-17-2009, 05:20 AM

I was wrapping up the chore of changing my spark plugs the other day and went to check my connections at the distributor cap......nothing loose, took nothing apart, nothing moved......and it shocked the pee out of me. Does anyone know why this might have happened?

Gibson99 · 08-17-2009, 08:59 AM

only way it could have happened is if it was running... and your wires and/or cap have a crack in them. and some other part of your body was grounded to the body or engine block somewhere. you became part of the circuit. suggest replacement of cap and wires.

***fenixus*** · 08-17-2009, 09:12 AM

why didn't you disconnect the battery? I always do that when messing with plugs and wires...

Gibson99 · 08-17-2009, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fenixus

why didn't you disconnect the battery? I always do that when messing with plugs and wires...

because you shouldn't have to. electricity is only running thru the plugs and wires when the engine is running.

you should only have to disconnect the battery when working on starter, alternator, and maybe airbags. or maybe main fusebox issues where you have to take apart the harness itself.

***fenixus*** · 08-17-2009, 11:37 AM

ah i see. i seem to be a bit overprotective sometimes, good to know hehe at least i won't have to reset clock and radio stations after tune-up next time

on the other hand i used to touch plug wires on running engine too, right after I replaced them with new ones ugh ... will remember that i wasn't supposed to.

Gibson99 · 08-17-2009, 11:56 AM

i've touched them too and been shocked when i wasn't careful. if the wires are in good shape you shouldn't get zapped. as long as you aren't touching the end of course!

another good test i've heard of is to run the engine at night with all the lights off, and if you can see arcing electricity around the distributor or wires, then you know they're worn and need to be replaced. of course this isn't the "de facto" test for cap n wires, but it's one that almost anyone can do.

Piledriver · 08-17-2009, 12:19 PM

Just make sure that any time you might be working with a live wire, you put your left or right hand behind your back and only touch the system with one hand at a time

That's so you can't make a circuit through your heart.

I don't know what sort of voltages/currents you're looking at in various parts of a car, maybe someone else can chime in on whether it's DC or AC and how much

SexieWASD · 08-17-2009, 04:45 PM

Spark plugs and wires are DC and I'm not sure what the average voltage is on our cars, but it's really high, somewhere in the range of 20,000 volts, as for amperage I can only guess, a few milliamps on a good day. It will jump you, but there isn't enough current to do any real damage.

They charge a coil which creates a magnetic field around it, when power is removed from the coil the magnetic field collapses and creates a very high voltage spike in anouther coil which is wrapped inside of the first coil, but not connected electrically to the cars battery, it's like a static shock really.