Precision Raceworks spark plug wire scare

Seaneezy

Corporal
Mar 12, 2018
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e90 LCI 335i
Pulling out my 5th cyl spark plug to replace after misfires. Pulled off the PR coil harness and the corresponding spark plug wire. Stick my spark plug wrench in the hole and out comes an insane amount of spark that shot out of the plug channel, luckily I was off to the side and was grounded.

Before I try this again, I'll disconnect the battery of course but I have other questions. I have heard rumors of the spark plug wires not being completely connected to the plug, I'm assuming this is what happened and the spark was not contained properly, got pissed and tried to kill me. Anyone else have this happen to them working on cars? Luckily I passed the mexican food I had earlier or there could have been a disaster.

EDIT: I always use dialectric grease, this time around I'll slather the motherfucker full of it
 

PaulKendall

Specialist
Nov 12, 2016
63
16
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Omaha NE
Do it again and try to get it on video, maybe have someone stand by to help with cpr or something. I have not had this happen with my pr coils. In for updates
 
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matreyia

Major
Apr 19, 2017
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Pulling out my 5th cyl spark plug to replace after misfires. Pulled off the PR coil harness and the corresponding spark plug wire. Stick my spark plug wrench in the hole and out comes an insane amount of spark that shot out of the plug channel, luckily I was off to the side and was grounded.

Before I try this again, I'll disconnect the battery of course but I have other questions. I have heard rumors of the spark plug wires not being completely connected to the plug, I'm assuming this is what happened and the spark was not contained properly, got pissed and tried to kill me. Anyone else have this happen to them working on cars? Luckily I passed the mexican food I had earlier or there could have been a disaster.

EDIT: I always use dialectric grease, this time around I'll slather the motherfucker full of it

You did not disconnect the plug boot from the coil first before removing plug? That is a strange way to change the plugs.
 

doublespaces

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Oct 18, 2016
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So you pulled the boot out of the spark plug well, and then received a massive shock from the spark plug? I think I"m missing something.
 
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fmorelli

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Aug 11, 2017
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You did not disconnect the plug boot from the coil first before removing plug? That is a strange way to change the plugs.
I couldn't even form the question. His explanation wasn't clear to me and further, seemed quite odd.

Here's my wild guess: battery still connected, a bare wire got exposed somewhere on the valve cover. When the spark plug tool got to the spark plug, somehow a circuit got completed. Good chance there is a blown fuse somewhere, I'd guess. Now we know why the old Chilton manuals start every procedure with, "Disconnect the negative battery cable." :p

@Seaneezy, hope nothing you care about got fried. Post back with some more specific info if you need help.

Filippo
 
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BSimmi15

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Aug 1, 2017
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Hey Guys,

I cannot speak to the spark piece but I can speak to the spark plug boots(what I call them) not connecting properly and I wasn't going to post anything but now realize that doesn't help anyone. Check out the below photo, I noticed the first generation boots were not connecting to the spark plugs properly and under high load I was getting bad misfires. Once I noticed PR released their Gen 2 boots I figured I would give it a shot and noticed a huge height difference. See for yourselves:

N54 Spark Plug Wire boots.jpg


P.S. I am not mad at PR for this, it honestly happens. I am not looking for money for the replacements, I am just happy my car hauls ass again.

Thanks,

Bsimmi15
 
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fmorelli

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Aug 11, 2017
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Actually we never worked on the PR setup. Just diagnosed and address the issues we were having with the bimmerlife R8 setup.

Filippo
 

Seaneezy

Corporal
Mar 12, 2018
133
34
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e90 LCI 335i
Following up, I'll try to reexplain.

I have the gen1 spark plug wires, where usually I just pull them out (with the metal "boot" inside, if I bother trying to remove it, I will end up malforming the boot and spending more time than what it's worth), remove the spark plug, reinstall a new greased plug and slide the spark plug wire back in with the boot still inside the spark plug wire. From the spark plugs I have pulled, none were damaged by the boot and ever since I haven't bothered to remove that "boot".

I posted this soon after it happened and the plug was still in the car. After I pulled that plug I noticed a mark on the ceramic, a horizontal line where I believe the spark plug wire boot was sitting as it was not completely pushed in. Since there was this gap, ignition obviously wasn't reliable.

So when I put in my socket wrench to pull out that spark plug, contact upon the plug resulted in the release of a ton of charge from somewhere, where a TON of sparks came out of that specific spark plug tunnel that my socket wrench was in. I pulled out the wrench quickly, I got a little shocked but I couldn't tell at the time because of the adrenaline.

I was able to drive her into work today, she is still misfiring from fried primary o2 sensors but it still drove better than it was before. I don't know if I blew up something, I'll take a peek at the fuse box but it's pouring in norcal and I don't want to check each fuse with the chance of rainwater falling into the box.

Hey Guys,

I cannot speak to the spark piece but I can speak to the spark plug boots(what I call them) not connecting properly and I wasn't going to post anything but now realize that doesn't help anyone. Check out the below photo, I noticed the first generation boots were not connecting to the spark plugs properly and under high load I was getting bad misfires. Once I noticed PR released their Gen 2 boots I figured I would give it a shot and noticed a huge height difference. See for yourselves:

View attachment 22752

P.S. I am not mad at PR for this, it honestly happens. I am not looking for money for the replacements, I am just happy my car hauls ass again.

Thanks,

Bsimmi15

When were these released? I bought a set of replacement gen1 wires last year :(
 

JimboFresh206

Sergeant
Jan 29, 2018
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335/635/535/533/633
Just tossing out ideas here

Seems kinda hard to get that much juice out of a bare plug in an aluminum head?

The extension I use is pretty long to save my back, I'll go try and touch it to the terminals/jump post in a bit for "science"
 

SlowE93

Major
Jul 2, 2017
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Just tossing out ideas here

Seems kinda hard to get that much juice out of a bare plug in an aluminum head?

The extension I use is pretty long to save my back, I'll go try and touch it to the terminals/jump post in a bit for "science"

Video the "shocking" results , lol
The extension would NEVER hit. The ratchet on the other hand.....
 

iminhell1

Sergeant
Jun 17, 2018
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I'm still stuck on these fantastic, life saving, cancer curing ignition upgrades being half baked.
*note to self, Dodge neon plug wires aren't quite long enough