I noticed underneath the hood last night that one of my plug wires was arc'ing..you can see the spark in the back on the drivers side, would this cause my car to miss and bog down like crazy
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Yes it would. That spark isn't reaching the plug, which isn't igniting the gas, which is causing that cylinder not to fire for that cycle.

 

Was just wondering cause we changed the plugs and wires cause it had a bad miss and no power when you hit the gas, and now it's worse. I am praying it's not my opti..and it's just the wire, it's all the way in the back on the drivers side..you can see it when you look between the valve cover and that exhaust pipe looking thing

 

I'd say if you can see the arcing, then it's most likely to be the wire.

 

I had tons of probs with my wires in my LT1 f-bods until I started replacing them with aftermarket (especially with headers). never had a prob once I started using accel and/or taylor wires. Use MSD's on the LSx 'vettes.

 

Actually I had a set of Taylors that were arcing. I replaced them later when I did LT's because I had to go to OTVC wires. Taylors again, but the cut-to-length kind. No arcing now.

 

ah. I should have specified. my taylors were over the valve cover / cut to fit. accels were standard routing.

 

Could be a defective wire, could also be a cracked plug (if the arcing is near a plug that is).

 

Space it away from metal, slide a piece of slit rubber hose on it or something, to stop the arcing. If you stop it, and the problem goes away......confirmed. That will only be a temporary fix.

 

Damn is it a bitch to get at...Seems to be worse when it warms up

 

Sounds like bad wires...you said they were new? Did you have to put the end terminals on them?

 

No more arc'ing...still have the really horrible miss though, can't step on it...can't even lay a patch of rubber, suffers to go up a hill. The whole car shakes when idiling...I've been leaning towards a distributor/oxygen sensor problem, it goes in the shop on Thursday, any suggestions before I throw money into the car?

 

if you can see arcing at night, you need to replace the wires or plug before doing anything else. very likely culprit. also, fwiw, hit the boots with some dielectric grease when you put them on (they'll come off easier later and it'll help a little extra)

 

I replaced the wire that was arcing and it still has the really bad miss...it seems to be in the timing

 

I would hate to pay a shop for this job. Sounds like an Opti. Get a cap and opti from autozone and put it on. If it works then great, if not then return it.

If you bring it to the shop you are going to be paying them to do the same thing i bet...just throw parts at it.