Team-BHP - Current/Spark Leaking from Accent

Hi All,

Today when I was coming back from work I was sitting at the back and driver was driving the car. As the climate was pleasent I decided to roll down the window. To my surprise I heard sound similar to mis-fire at low RPM's. When asked driver about it he told this is happening sometimes. When I reached home I asked him to open the bonnet.
I was surprised to see spark near the coil wire. Mine is Accent petrol and has 2 coils each having 2 wires connected to spark plugs. So I can see the current coming out one of the wires. The current was coming out from the same point at which Coil was connected to Spark Plug Wire. I disconnected the wire and reconnected thinking it's losse but this didn't solved the problem. Need Urgent help as I'm out most of these days and my wife is using the car and can't take chances.

Thanks
Saurabh

If you see cracks on the plug wires insulation then change it, it may leave you stranded for sometime during rain. If wires look fine then try this. Make some soap solution and clean the wires with old tooth brush and when its completely dry (keep engine bay under sun for half an hour) apply some talcum powder on wires and wipe. Carbon deposits on wire make the insulation material slightly conducting causing the sparks.

HI Saurabh,

Just check with that specific spark plug it be malfunctioning before you change the wire, as Hasim said check for damages on that wire, or change that particular wire not the complete set, it should solve the problem. Because spark plug backfires usually if there is water hit to that spark plug making it malfunction.

Quote:

Originally Posted by saurabhkum (Post 2004566)

How to find out if there is water hit to that spark plug making it malfunction. All the spark plugs are irridium.

check the cable for dampness, follow the tip given by "Hashim" it should be enough, else the wire would need to be replaced.

At first when i saw your thread, i thought you had been a victim of this :
Sparks coming from engine!

As for the resolution, Sankars point on replacing the wires are probably the safe way to go. Hashims tricks sound interesting if you have the time and inclination to try em first.

How many km has your accent run? What year is it?
Mumbai weather can be really harsh on certain rubber and plastic parts.

cya
R

The car has done 48k. There are no visible sign of cracks on wires neither I can see any dampness in that area. I enquired about changing wire sometime back and the service centre told I need to buy entire set and it will cost approx 2200. Is the price and information correct.

Also is it final conclusion that culprit is faulty wire and not coil or anything else.

Hi Saurabh,
This is just a past experience I would like to share here. Once my uncle was complaining of low pick up on his Accent GLX, which turned out that once of the cylinders didnt fire at all. Looking into the bonnet in the day light, I could only hear some spark jumping from somewhere near the coils towards the engnie body. SO that same day I replaced the cables (Rs1400/-), but still the problem persisted. Only in the night I was able to notice a spark jump from a crack developed in the body of the HT coils. The next day a new HT coil was purchased (Rs1800/-) and the problem is solved now. I dont remember the exact make of the coil or the cable. But that was the last piece available (that too without guaranty or warranty) with a spare part shop and I had to buy it.
My advice would be to check underhood at night, when even a spark is neatly visible.
-Ilango

Quote:

Originally Posted by saurabhkum (Post 2005611)

you'll need to use an aftermarket wire as hyundai sells the set only.

I remember my santro used to have same problem and i drove it for few days then visited hyundai and they connected the ECU scanner and found that one spark plug was not getting proper voltage, the cable didn't looked much damaged but the mech said, its the culprit and service center had only complete set,

I had to request the mech to arrange one cable and it was a matter of few minutes when I got a single cable for some extra tip, IIRC I paid 200/250 in all, to get one almost new cable, and the car was as smooth as always.

One solid way to check these HT cable is to use a multimeter, set the meter to resistance (100 Ohms range) pull out the HT leads and connect the multimeter leads (read and black usually) to each end of HT cable. Ideally HT lead should show Zero Ohms but I don't think that quality is ever invented but a decent quality brand new HT leads show between 3 - 5 Ohms and after some use this value keeps increasing. Anything above 15 Ohms is not good, it will work and also look physically fine but not work with full efficiency. Good thing is that now digital multimeter don't cost much (about Rs.100) and come very handy for measuring battery voltage and much more.

Note that since not all HT leads are of same size, shorter ones will show less value while longer ones may show slightly more value which is normal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hashim (Post 2008369)

Hashim, Nice D.I.Y. Suggestion, I am trying this tomorrow, already have a digital MM.
will post results.

Thanks for all the help, got the all the 4 wires changed. After that when checking at higher rpm's we can some current leak 10% of what it had earlier so the authorised workshop told me Spark Plugs also needs to be chnaged and they showed me with the new spark plugs that there was no leak in current at higher rpm.
Now the tricky part the plugs which were there in the cars were Irridium Plugs so on asking them why this happeded that Spark Plug change was required they told me that the plugs are not able to dispose all the current generated. When I told them these are the best plugs and that shouldn't be the case they have no idea. I thought that even if I change 1 Plug from which current is leaking it will cost me approx 800 for the single plug let's get back to normal plugs for the time being which costed my 240 for set of 4. So the total cost was 2400 with plugs and original wires.
Can someone help me with why the plugs were not able to pass on all the current? The plugs were approx 15,000 kms old changed some 2 years back.
The car is running fine now but I'm puzzled by the change of plug fact.