How do I check for arching?

 

Eyeball it in the dark.

 

So I should disconnect the wire from the plug and see if it will arch to a metal part of the car?

 

This the way I would do it:

Make sure it is nighttime
Put the front of the car on jackstands
open hood
leave all wires connected to plugs/opti as normal
start motor
Inspect every possible inch of every plug wire and see if small "bolts" are shooting out of them and striking nearby metal.

Also, with motor off, check your plug wire connections at the opti. Several times I thought they clicked in, but they really didn't.

 

Actually Gmparts direct has a very off the wall pricing structure. All the prices of the actual items are GM dealer cost. However, now they still have to ship it to you and make some money. For some reason, they decided to charge "shipping" as a percentage of the cost of the order... Now granted some of that cost will actually go to mailing your items to you but this is also their profit margin as well, it has irritated many people in the past. Instead of charging a low markup and advertising the price as that, and giving a real world shipping cost, they play this game. In reality for most things they have very decent prices even with shipping taken into account compared to the local dealer parts counter.

Maybe it's because they want to advertise the "lowest" possible price. Because no GM dealer is able to possibly sell it cheaper than they pay.... and none are in the business of selling parts without turning a profit...

Take care,

George

 

You can buy from Dal or Jason and they don't play this game. Total prices are often cheaper than gmpartsdirect.

 

I am not a shill for GM Parts Direct. I have ordered a couple of things from them but in general steer clear due to the difficulty contacting them if there is a problem. That said, something came up in this thread that always annoys me when I see it. Why do people care that the "shipping" charge is so high? It's the bottom line that counts - the total cost. Jegs and Summit cleverly play into this quirk of consumer psychology by advertising free "shipping", but charging $10.95 (or whatever it is currently) for "handling". What's the difference what they call it?

I usually order GM parts from Dal, FWIW.

Rich

 

I've bought quite a bit of stuff for my car over the last year. My experience has been that GM Parts Direct is never cheaper than Dal or Jason. Their list price is often a bit cheaper, but their shipping charges are so high they have always been more expensive in the end. I haven't bought every possible part for my car, but I have purchased, or priced, 20+ components this year, including electrical, mechanical and structural.

That said, I'm also planning to go with the MSD wires. I hope they aren't junk.