Test Spark Plug Wires With Multimeter
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- No resistance specs or chart is needed to figure out the correct spark plug wire resistance on any set of spark plug wires. A spark plug wire test with a multi meter can determine if the conductors are good.
Here's a link to a Know How Now video on how to use a multimeter to test resistance/continuity: th-cam.com/video/9H-uMSGHFXM/w-d-xo.html
There are hundreds of videos at Know How Now, subscribe so you can always find the channel…. It’s free. I always respect your time and do my best to keep the videos brief, but informative. Check out the channel with this link:
www.youtube.com/@Know-How-Now/videos
You are a breath of fresh air! Easy to understand,no stupid loud obnoxious intro tire spinning stupid stuff. Please do more! Easy pleasing understanding voice 👍
Thanks for watching the video, Mike. I regularly add new videos to the channel, though most of them are home repairs.
Not too long. I learned a lot from your short video. Please continue to make more videos. Thank you!
You are welcome. It's good to hear that the video was helpful and thanks for the compliments.
Great Video - I had a problem where my car was jumping as I accelerated = happened after 2 days of non stop rain - changing the leads solved the problem and also improved the power of the car and MPG a lot.
You are Welcome. Thanks for commenting, Dee. I'm sure your experience will be helpful to other viewers. It's great to hear your car is runner better too.
This is such a great video. I had a perfect LT (primary circuit) state but no HT output to the plugs. My problem was a faulty lead from the coil to the distributor.
Plug leads are very difficult to check on your own, as it's hard to correctly ground plugs and see spark strength when you're turning an engine over.
This solves the problem with respect to the leads - as you say consistency is the key - making sure the resistance takes account of lead length. Clearly explained and demonstrated.
Now - come and take a ride on UK roads in a Triumph TR6...
Thanks for taking the time to comment. It's good to hear that the method in the video helped with the troubleshooting. Hopefully, we will be able to travel more freely soon. Have a great day in the UK.
don't stop keep your nice work we can use multimeter to diagnose almost everything around us cars, home devices, electronics, solar system, batteries , phones, HAVC, etc and actually everybody must have a pocket multimeter in the car its always helpful even if it low price multimeter (but just for cars simple diagnose not for serious electricity work in this case it must be high quality multimeter for safety and always use it with extreme caution).
i like your video and after i read your replies on comments i subscribed and by the way not everyone understanding fast it's different from person to person so my opinion is your video wasn't long.
Thanks for subscribing and the complement, Sherif. My thoughts were that if someone was looking for help with this topic, they probably had very limited experience using a multimeter. After electronics school, I made many rookie mistakes and I wanted the viewer to avoid the common mistakes.
New subscriber here from England.👍
A nice informative little film, about a subject that doesn't always get a mention.
I own a late 1970s Morris Minor Traveller, I'll make time to check my HT leads now.
Kind regards.👍
Thanks for subscribing, Jonnie. Welcome to Know How Now. I have fond memories of a visit to London.
Beautiful voice and excellent explanation😊😊
Not too long. Just an in depth video for a beginner looking at their plug wires. Thank you.
Thanks for the compliment, Tom. That's what I was hoping to accomplish.
Know How Now . I am probably going to need to use your test this weekend. My brother in laws 2005 PT Cruiser Turbo has developed a bad miss and backfires when he tries to pass another car. The check engine light came on with a P0303 code for cylinder three misfire. I am going to try to help him figure it out. My code reader, which is the BlueDriver, said the most common fixes were plugs or the cam sensor. I will see. Runs great at idle so I don't think it is a vacuum leak. Thanks, Tom
Great video. nice to see a lady doing this type of stuff.
Thanks for the compliment. As many others have done, please consider subscribing to the channel. It's free and you will easily be able to find over 200 repair/how to videos that are organized by playlist.
Good and correct scientific information provided by you
Thanks a lot.
You are welcome.
Thank you so much bought an old classic b m w completely forgot how to do this stuff
You are welcome.
Excellent video... very informative... and to be narrated by Jody Foster as well... LoL...seriously, she DOES sound like her...LoL...
Thanks for the compliment, Paul. (From the voice of Jody Foster.... LOL.)
Thanks sistet .. its help for my old car 👍👍👍👍
You are welcome.
Super informative and easy to follow thank you
You are welcome. Thank you for the compliment, Dean.
I have a question for you. If there is no continuity in the spark plug wire edges, does this mean it is broken? The resistance is there but not the continuity
I'm not understanding your question. I don't know what your meaning of spark plug wire edges.
@@Know-How-Now measuring the spark plug cable with the multimeter gives me resistance but not continuity. So the cable is broken, or am I wrong?
Continuity is around 0 to just a few ohms.... that's what you would read on a few hundred feet of #14 copper wire. Spark plug cables are supposed to read much higher resistance per foot than a copper conductor. www.championautoparts.com/Technical/Tech-Tips/Defective-Spark-Plug-Wires.html
Super helpful video!
One question that's totally irrelevant to the video content, but may I ask where you're from? I know the accent, but I can't quite place it lol
I live about 50 miles from Philadelphia.
Great Video--the ratio analysis makes sense
Thanks the the compliment, Randy. Other than getting the specs for your wires, it's the only way I can think of to get a rough estimate of the correct reading for each wire.
A better comment of advice about checking at night ,, a darkened area or darkened garage instead of night
18.5 resistance on coil wire to distributor...1993 honda accord
13 inch length.
Too much resistance?
very high for the length...a 3 ft length should be around 9-10k... a 1 ft is usually 3 K ohms
I really can't understand. I bought a brand new cable spark plug.
Kia Rio Model
It measures 1.8 ohms
The old one cable measures 2.2 ohms.
Both with the same length.
What my conclusion should be?
Please advise, I am freaking out because of my lack of intelligence.
Kind Regards
I wouldn't get upset about a difference of less than 1 ohm. 1 ohm is a very minute amount of resistance. I wouldn't be concerned.
@@Know-How-Now Thank you
But..I am very confused, wich one has better resistance the old cable or the new cable?
.4 ohm is so small of a difference that really, both cables are the same. The old cable has slightly more resistance.
@@Know-How-Now
But something is wrong.
The old cable is very used for around 94000 miles.
My conclusion is that the new cable has poor quality.
It's impossible 94000 miles but practically with the same resistance of the new cable. I called the supplier and he said: - yeah..no problems bro I will refund the money back. But!!
I called Kia and asked what's the standards for the spark plugs cables resistance from Kia Rio.
Reply: we are not entitled to inform the resistance standards for those specific cables.
Very strange, 94000 miles and new cable with not much difference. Something is wrong.
I made the video because it's difficult/impossible to get the specs (as you have discovered) for your particular set of wires. By comparing them, you can get a rough estimate of how much resistance you should read on each cable to find out if it is broken/damaged inside of the insulation and make an educated guess to replace them. The insulation on the cables breaks down over time and that can fail too.
I have no way of knowing the specs for each one of your cables, especially something so small a .4 ohm. Depending on the quality of a multimeter you could have .4 ohm difference from one meter to the next. Likely, your question needs to be answered by the engineering department of the manufacturer. Sorry, I am not one to give you an answer to a question that I don't have the ability/information to answer.
my leads are showing nothing at 20000k but at 20 k i get 7.0 is that bad?
Thanks, my BigBlue truck thanks you!
You and BigBlue are welcome, Jason!
I brought new spark wire and tested it and giving me reading .825. Is it good or bad? Right car now getting spark. Could be bad spark wire?
I don't know the specs for your plug wires, so I can't tell if that is a good reading. That's why I have you measure all of them so you can get an idea of the correct reading for your set of wires.
The easy way is wait until its completley dark lift the bonnet of your car ( while running ) and if you see slivers of light or tiny sparks or the leads are glowing ;coming from your leads replace then
That doesn't mean anything 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣lmfao just because it arks doesn't mean it's bad lol
Thank you!
You are welcome!
Just what I was looking for, thanks. Philadelphian?
You are welcome. I live about 50 miles east of Philly.
@@Know-How-Now I moved from St. Louis to Philly about 2 years ago, still getting used to the various accents ;)
Clamp on multimeter. Does anyone still use those anymore.
Thanks for the video
You are welcome, Dennis.
Good info! Thank you!
You're welcome!
is there any sequence to plug it depending upon its resistance?
I'm not real clear on your question, Saad. I will try to answer. The longer the wire, the higher the resistance reading. You'll need to test all of the wires to get make an educated guess on whether or not the wires are good.
Know How Now I meant that the longer wire usually have more resistance and the shorter has less resistance comparatively, so is there any specific sequence for plugging the wires? like the longer wire must be plugged into the first spark plug and the other end into its rightful place and not plug the longer wire into the third spark plug...?
You have to connect the wires between the distributor and the cylinders according to the firing order for your engine. The longest wire will go to the cylinder farthermost away from the distributor. The 2nd longest to the next farthermost cylinder and so on.
thanks a lot you've been very helpful
You are welcome
Extremely helpful! Especially including the fact that you replaced with new, anyway and it improved MPG impressively. Not long ago, before I grew up (read: old), I'd have asked you to marry me.
I've had a few marriage proposals. lol.
I must have the same kind of multimeter you have to apply your lecture.
I'm not sure if you are asking a question. You can use an auto-range multimeter, that's the kind shown in the video. You can also use type that you select the range. For novice mulitmeter users, I recommend that you buy an auto range multimeter. It's way easier to use and there is less chance for user error.
Thank you Great understand video channel
You are welcome and thanks for the compliment.
Superb video lady
Thanks for the compliment.
still confused. so, the service manual or all data has spec numbers based on wire length? that test is rather inconclusive. your service manual says that your reading should not be greater than 25k ohms. how helpful.
If you want exact numbers you may want to try to get them from the wire manufacturer. The test lets you figure out approximately how much resistance for a length, then with a little math you can get rough idea if all of your wires are in the ball park of what they should read. If the insulation is breaking down, this test won't help.
Thank you.
You are welcome. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year.
Thanks
You are welcome.
Thanks helpful me..👍
You are welcome.
Firing order on a Pontiac Trans Am
Very informative info
Thanks for the compliment, I do my best to make videos worth the time spent watching them.
i need you to marry me so i want have to pay for repair bills lol
lol you are very funny..
I will never understand...
for toyota, resistance shoould not exceed 1k ohms per inch
thanks for that night water spray tip
Yyou didnot diagnose anything using the multimeter
You might want to use the term "diagnose" in your search, Gerald. The title of the video says "Test". You won't be so disappointed. Have great day!
Thumbs up
Thanks
Good morning ma'am hope your day is going well! Are you able to make a video showing how to use a multimeter and all of it's functions and show how to apply it in action? I have an (INNOVA 3300) and idk how to use it correctly and comprehend it. I'm trying to use the multimeter I have on (DC AMPS) to follow and apply this test here (th-cam.com/video/gEQnKNLlcFQ/w-d-xo.html). Can you also make a video showing how to properly backprobe an ignition coil connector?
Sorry I own a Fluke multimeter. You might want to do an internet search for your specific question.
@@Know-How-Now Good afternoon ma'am! Thank you for your reply i appreciate it. You have a beautiful blessed day!
I hope you have a beautiful blessed day too!
@@Know-How-Now Thank you so much for those blessings! God bless you always!
I hear what you are saying,lol.
💗🌷💗🌷💗🌷😘😘
Philly accent
Lol thanks mom.
You are welcome. lol
Didn’t need to know how use multi meter
Yes, but some people do and they will complain that I didn't show them.
tooooooooo long
Thanks for commenting Sayed. I'm always open to feed back. What parts of the video would you suggest that I omit?
Know How Now the part concerning learning of using multimeter was too long
I agree, it's a little long, getting accurate readings are critical.
My thought was that if someone is watching this video, it's likely they are not very experienced using a multimeter. I see a lot of people with the free Harbor Freight multimeters, probably not great instruments and should be checked prior to every use. Due to a bad pair of leads, I've seen people spend a lot of time and money trying to fix the wrong problem.
Know How Now thanks for your efforts but it would be helpful to point that in video title for example adjusting multimeter and testing spark plug cables knowing that the multimeter you used is not common in middle east and Arabian region, you actually did it very well thanks so much
Thanks for taking the time to give me some feedback Sayed. It's been a pleasure to chat with you.
It’s actually longer the wire less the resistance. Ohms is backwards bro. Noob
Ummm I think you are mistaken. You might want to brush up on Ohm's Law. www.cirris.com/learning-center/calculators/133-wire-resistance-calculator-table
Got me wondering why @iwana would think a longer cable would mean less resistance.
Probably they rationalized a scenario in which 2 cables of different quality or gauge had similar resistance. In which case the longer cable would get less resistance per inch/meter and hence heat up less. Then it might seem that a less heated cable got less resistance.
Longer the wire, the Greater the resistance ...Fact......you may want to do some research before calling the video creator a noob,,,
You all just got trolleddddddddd mutha fkasssssssssss
@@iwanaGoFast2010haha I was just pretending to be retarded