my engine decided after i drove through a puddle yesterday (couldnt help it with all the rain out here)that it would start making a new and disturbing noise, it now sounds dry and raspy, alot louder than normal. performance wise i have felt it hesitate twice and nothing else seems to be affected. any ideas?

 

So what year and how many miles?? Have you opened the hood to due an inspection, what did you see, do you go thru water are heavy mud and is the mud all over the engine?? Give us some help here, Thanks.

 

all right its a 2002 about 80K, i did a quick once over did not notice anything out of the norm, just a flooded road maybe a foot on deck. nothing but water though.

 

Sound like you have mud in your pulleys, I would suggest you go to your local do it yourself car wash and power scrub every square inch of your engine and compartment, pay lots of attention to the belt and pulleys.

 

all right i also found that i have a cracked spark plug boot that was arcing to the cylinder head. would that have anything to do with that?

 

Thats a start, what year and model do you have, how many miles on it?
Pull a plug or two, see what is left on them and go for a wire set, 8 mm Magnacor, and a set of plugs, Bosch Platium Plus 4's or Rover only Champions and you'll have a happy engine again.

 

year and model three repies up and i will pull plugs tomorrow, have duty today, have 4+'s in now. magnacores are only like $32 at advanced arent they?

 

Sorry, I missed the year and mileage. Magnacor 8mm wires are under $110 on line. They are not sold at auto parts store and the cost of them is the least of your problem, as an 02, your engine probably has secondary air and as such your looking at abot $200 in labor to pull the manifold to replace the wires.

 

Use the Magnacor wires. The Bosch one's you can get at the parts stores are crap. I know first hand.

 

yeah i saw the distributer location, I'll be damned if i pay someone to change plug wires for me though. what would be the differance between the two wires besides maybe a mm and the obvious price?