wrote:
On Tue, 24 Dec 2013 04:00:58 -0600, Leon wrote:

wrote:
On Mon, 23 Dec 2013 17:50:22 -0800, "Lew Hodgett"
wrote:

I have a 1999 Toyota Tacoma P/U truck with 128,000 miles on it.

Today it started running "Rough" so stopped by my mechanic to
have it checked out.

Turns out that a spark plug wire had shorted out.

An after market set of four (4) wires were $48 while wires from Toyota
were $83.

Looks like a straight forward decision, after market parts are the
way to go, but there is one more piece of information that is needed
to
be known.

The original wires lasted 90,000 miles with no problems when they
were changed out with an after market set of wires which only lasted
38,000 before failure.

Based on that information, the Toyota set of wires for $83 looks like
the best deal, and they were installed.

Time will tell if I made the correct decision.

I had a '93 Eagle Vision TsI that threw a set of wires every fall[*].
The difference between the aftermarket and OEM wires was ~$20 ($80 vs.
$100, IIRC). The kicker was that *every* brand of aftermarket wire
had insulators that were 1/4" too long. The OEM ones fit.

Every year I'd go through the game of trying to convince the guys at
the parts stores that their wires really didn't fit ("See! "They're
TOO LONG!").

[*] Turns out that the plug gap spec on the engine label was wrong. It
specified a .062" gap, which I thought was a little big, but "what the
heck...". The gap *should* have been .035". Doubling the spark
wasn't doing the wires any good. :-(

It "threw" a set of wires???

Ate them? Um, they "failed"?

Ok, failed is good.. Lots of non car people get the terminology mixed up.
Typically an engine will throw " belts". I was a bit confused.