GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Does neone know where i could get sparkplug wires?

Correct me if I'm being stupid, but do you even need them? I took off the Vibe's cheesy engine cover yesterday only to find to my dismay that they have individual coilpacks! The ECU gives them voltage and a signal and the hi-voltage starts at that coil and goes directly to the plug. I can't even figure how to get the damn things off as I wanted to remove the plugs and examine them for clues as to why this car gets such horrible gas mileage. Anyone know how to remove coilpacks? Just pull straight up, or do they have to be rotated at all?Also, that afrorementioned engine cover is held on by two nuts, and two snap-off barb thingys. The holes they fit in are threaded..I'm just going to buy some nice stainless bolts and put them in their place so I don't have plastic snapping all over the place when I pull the cover off. Cheap (removed) engineers..Does the GT have spark plug wires and a single coil pack, or does it use one per cylinder like the 1ZZFE does?

i have no idea...where are the spark plug wires anyways, because the spark plugs are about 4 inches dwn.???

There are none.

there has to be spark plug wires...how else would it work?!?

There are no plug wires because each plug has it's own coil directly connected to it.

wow...now that is weird!!!but...ok..thanks again peeps!!!

loosen the screw that hold down the coil pack. give it a little wiggleas you pull up on them to loosen the boot.

Here is a pic I took last year while changing my plugs. http://forums.genvibe.com/zero...1.JPG

then what? so the only thing i could do is get better spark plugs then right...no plug wires?

Quote, originally posted by rcasciola »then what? so the only thing i could do is get better spark plugs then right...no plug wires?Your stock spark plugs are the very best out there.

i changed mine out the oem dezo plugs are good but the ik20 5304 denzo plugs are much better better fuel and just a bit more power.

> Question!!!If there are no plug wires, how does the electrical signal to fire the plug get from the ECU to the coil packs? I know it might not have true "spark plug wires" but there has to be some kind of wire to the coil packs to transmit the signal.Eliminating the old style spark plug wires gives the engine more power and efficiency, right? The high voltage electrical signal doesn't have to travel so far which reduces electrical resistance (less voltage lost to resistance) and can fire the plugs faster, meaning more accurate spark timing especially at higher revs when they have to fire very quickly. Is this right?

You're correct. The service manual says, to replace a spark plug, step 3 requires you to "disconnect the electrical connector from each ignition coil."So clearly, there's SOME sort of wiring that run to each spark plug.But from previous posts, I sense that in older cars, the technical "spark plug wire" would run from the coilpack to the plug. So I think technical spark plug wires are eliminated by having a coilpack on each plug.

There is probably a small wiring harness that disconnects at each coil pack then. That's my guess.Yes, the old style spark plugs ran from the coil pack to the plugs (on vehicles where the ECU controlled spark timing) or from the distrubuter cap on even older style cap-and-rotor cars that mechanically timed the spark off of the crankshaft position. These older styles are the ones that I'm more familiar with.The new style with the coil packs for each plug have to cost a small fortune to replace. Old style spark plugs usually ran me about $30 for a full set of them of decent quality for a V6 engine. I think the owner's manual maintenance schedule recommended replacing them every 30K miles. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that each coil pack for the Vibe would run about $110 and are only available through the dealers right now.

Yep, there is a harness that disconnects from each coil pack.Service guide recommends spark plugs being changed every 90,000 miles (about 144800 km).Interesting, the GT coils are cheaper than Base/AWD coils.COIL, IGNITION (BASE, AWD MODEL) 94859442 124.10COIL, IGNITION (GT MODEL) 88970216 107.38Those prices, of course, are per coil.

Holy cow! I was only off by $2.62! (for my car, anyway)

Quote, originally posted by Stang2Vibe »The new style with the coil packs for each plug have to cost a small fortune to replace..... I'm going to take a wild guess and say that each coil pack for the Vibe would run about $110 and are only available through the dealers right now.But the coils are not a maintenance item; they likely will last the life of the vehicle.

Quote, originally posted by NovaResource2 »There are no plug wires because each plug has it's own coil directly connected to it. This is called 'coil-on-plug' style of ignition, basically eliminates the control module, and the distributer. Most new vehicles are moving to this type of distributerless ignition. With the advent electronic timing, knock sensors, computer controls, it can more effectively control the ignition advance to prevent misfires, predetonation, overfueling etc. Great technology but so far expensive to replace worn components.

I've noticed that this is becoming more and more popular in new cars. I have to say that I did notice that my Vibe is the smoothest running car that I've yet owned in the very cold weather. I knew that these weren't regular maintenance items but with the luck I usually have with cars, if it's expensive, I usually have to replace it in a few years. At about $440 US, that's a hefty chunk of change to be tossing at parts that are supposed to last the life of the car. The old cap and rotor had to be replaced about every 30,000 miles, but only cost around $14 the last time I bought one.