Ignition wires

[zoomblur]

First, thanks for looking at my post. I appreciate everyone who takes the time to make this forum such a great place for LR support...

That being said, just heard from my repair shop that the #6 ignition wire on my 2001 Disco II (99K miles) is throwing a code, needs to be replaced. PROBLEM: I was told that I should replace all wires at once due to labor--takes as much time to replace 1 as to replace all--makes sense. I was quoted a price of $450 for this service, not including price of new plugs, should I choose those as well. I am also having work done on driveshaft, having right downpipe welded, and left downpipe gasket replaced.

QUESTION: All of this work is going to cost me an arm and a leg. If I pass on the ignition wire replacement for now, and can live with the vehicle misfiring, what's my worst case scenario? I know that I need to do the work, and wish like hell that I knew how to do it myself. I have read as many posts on this as I can find, but I am not as educated on this as I would like and don't know if I could tackle this particular job. I have done it before on other vehicles, but I'm a little intimidated by removing major components to access the coil.

Hope I'm not wasting anyone's time, but need a straight answer since the Disco's already at the shop under the knife. Thanks for the help.

[scotth]

Save the money do it yourself. I changed mine last year and it took about 2 hours. the coil pack is in a tight spot but you should have no problem. Take the wires off one at a time so you want get them crossed. I had to order my wires from atlantic british, the LR dealer wanted $275 for them. I think I paid alittle over $100 for them from atlantic british. If your spark plugs haven't been changed I would also change them.

[rmuller]

Pick up a set of Magnecore 8mm wires... www.4x4ag.com sells them.. they are somewhere around $70-80 bucks for the set. As for plugs, go Champion Double Platinum....

[Rovin4life]

waste of money,

change the one plug wire and then see if it comes back.

if it is then its the coil.

then have them change the others cause its a pain in the but and its possible the others might break down after being disturbed when you install the new coil.



thats what we do and we are the dealer.

1 and six share the same coil. also when 1 fires six is the ground for it.

save the money. plus its not to difficolt to do six wire without secondary air.

go to the dealer pick up the six wire and away you go.

[Disco Mike]

Originally Posted by rmuller

Pick up a set of Magnecore 8mm wires... www.4x4ag.com sells them.. they are somewhere around $70-80 bucks for the set. As for plugs, go Champion Double Platinum....

I agree, go for the 8mm Magnacor wires and a good set of plugs.
Don't just replace one wire at a time, replace the whole set, at your milage, none of them are doing your engine much good.
Don't buy the factory wires, it is well know they don't hold up.
Dealers are getting scarey when it comes to their suggestions. On a high mileage engine always do all the wires, yes they are a little hard to change, but the difference is hugh, and don't just buy and replace a coil pack based on one 0300 code, like the 0306 code you got when having your codes read. There are plaenty of fault codes for failing coli packs and unless you have them and check it out properly first a new coil pack at $600 or so is like throwing money in the wind.
Mike

[rmuller]

Originally Posted by Rovin4life

waste of money,

change the one plug wire and then see if it comes back.

if it is then its the coil.

then have them change the others cause its a pain in the but and its possible the others might break down after being disturbed when you install the new coil.



thats what we do and we are the dealer.

1 and six share the same coil. also when 1 fires six is the ground for it.

save the money. plus its not to difficolt to do six wire without secondary air.

go to the dealer pick up the six wire and away you go.

I completly disagree.. change them all and get it over with.. its part of your scheduled maintence and for the price of GOOD aftermarkets (magnecores) versus the horrid overprice of the dirty stealership at $36 DOLLARS a wire... [oh yeah, plugs are $21/piece too.. I know those are specially developed by Champion for LR and not available elsewhere.. but their normal double plats work fine].

thats what we do and we are the dealer.

That alone means to do something else!

[MadeInDetroit]

I think Rovin4Life specifically states that he should replace them all and seemed to simply be helping the guy through verifying the diagnosis and a solution for a quick fix. If I'm not mistaken, he's the mechanic here.

[zoomblur]

Thanks for the help everyone. Rovin4life made some really good points and I appreciate the input.

I would really like to find out how to do the wire change myself. Until now, the most challenging job I've done was swap out a MAF sensor, and I know this will be much more involved. If someone's willing to spell out the process step by step, describing all the details, which tools I'll need, what to remove, what not to remove, etc. I may give it a go. Also, the Atlantic British website tells me I will need a new intake manifold gasket. These are the little secrets that a novice like me will not know until it's too late, so any and all tips are appreciated.

Thanks!

[Disco Mike]

Originally Posted by MadeInDetroit

I think Rovin4Life specifically states that he should replace them all and seemed to simply be helping the guy through verifying the diagnosis and a solution for a quick fix. If I'm not mistaken, he's the mechanic here.

He may be a mechanic, and like we all know, there are good and bad mechanics out there.
You never suggest a coil pack because one plug wire is throwing a codeespecially when there are no coil pack faults showing
One of the biggest problem any more is most dealers are into throwing parts at a vehicle instead of testing, looking at the fault codes and acting on some experience as in the case here where most Rover mechanics with some experience know Rovers wire don't hold up and need to be replaced as a set.
Mike

[MadeInDetroit]

I gotcha - thanks Mike.

Just out of curiosity, are you a mechanic? I have learned some good maintenance procedures from your posts.

[Disco Mike]

30 years as a servive writer and or manager with a number of automotive franchices, you pick up alot of theory and mechanical appitude along the way.I think I got sent to nearly every class offered by many of the auto groups for service managers, writers and QC people.
Mike

[Muddy Oval]

The #6 wire is famous for cooking on a DII. My 04 did it at 27K. The dealer put a single new wire on my passenger seat after waiting 8 hours, so that fix didn't work. I kinda wondered how they could make it work from the seat, but they are the dealer, ya know. I canned the original wire set and found the boots cooked and hard/split on a couple other wires as well. Got a set of Magnacores (must admit, the ordering process wasn't easy) but installed them and haven't had a problem since.
At the age of your truck, it's due for new ones anyway so why bother with just one when doing the rest is a good idea anyway?

Drive it with a misfire and you're asking for huge trouble.

[Rovin4life]

unlike the older discoveries the newer ones do not have a ground for the coil

they use the engine block to ground.

so when coil number one ignites its grounded thru the engine thru to cylinder number six and out thru that coil.

hence no coil codes. just misfire codes corresponding to coil numbers 1,6

2,3

5,8,

4,7



besides why bother putting eight magnacore wires on when it doesnt fix the problem but covers over it.

why bother wasting all that time to do eight wires when one is bad and if their is more then use your time wisely and install the eight alongside a coil.

[zoomblur]

Thanks for all the help. I plan on replacing all of the cables at once. What I was curious about was, after looking at the workshop manual, I noticed that #6 is near the top of the coil, and thought if it were easier to reach than the others perhaps I could at least get the one swapped out that is causing the misfire.

I'm still worried about taking the more invasive, but proper approach to the job. I just don't want to pull something loose that I shouldn't. I read through the process in the shop manual, but would appreciate any tips from those of you who do this regularly. Are there any steps listed in the shop manual repair method that can be skipped? And will I be removing the coils, or just the intake covers to allow better access? Again, I'm a novice, but feel like I could tackle this.

[Muddy Oval]

The misfire code is for 6, not 1 and 6. I wouldn't suspect the coil at all when DII's routinely bake their crappy original wires. It's time to change them all. How can a new wire 'cover' the problem and not fix it? That's silly.

in the case of this one- changing that ONE wire and then taking it for a spin isn't a bad idea to see if it cleared the problem. It really should get 'em all replaced soon though.