Ignition Wires, opinions anyone

[ck1995]

O.K. its tuneup time.....
After reviewing old posts I see there is agreement that non-OEM Bosch parts aren't of the same quality as the BMW OEM ones. The wires for my E34 M20 are approx $400 most places I have seen, I found a Bosch set on BMA for just over $100, can the OEM really be worth the $300??? Can it be and if so can anyone explain why or cite some examples

[COT1]

Just put :Roter, Roter Cap & Wires from Bev auto and they spark just fine.

[markus]

dont order plugs from bav auto. when i had my E30 325i I bought plugs locally. I got each one for $1 and change vs the $4 and change they want. It had the same enigne as your car. I had the bav auto plug wires but id just stick with OEM. Cap and rotor stick with bosch. Give steve haygood a call. Im sure he can get you a better deal. Change air filter and fuel filter too and do a valve adjustment. The M20 will purr like a kitten.

[John B.]

I doubt there is any difference between the Bosch plug wires the dealer sells & those from BMA other then price. I got mine through BMA several years ago & they matched the stock wires that came with my car.

[ck1995]

I take it you are/were happy with the performance of what you installed. I just don't want to "cheap out" put on crap and wish I had gone OEM...?

[Jon K]

Thicker spark plug wires are seriously over rated. Get ordinary parts.

[John B.]

I take it you are/were happy with the performance of what you installed. I just don't want to "cheap out" put on crap and wish I had gone OEM...?

I'm very happy & as I said I think you are getting the same wires at a much better price through BMA.

[JMI]

Take a look here (http://replacement.autopartswarehouse.com/parts/autopartswarehouse/wizard.jsp?year=1990&make=BM&model=525-I-001&category=All&part=Ignition%20Wire%20Set&dp=true) ;)

Jim

[winfred]

the factory style wires are solid core with resisters on the ends instead of crappy resister wire like most cars and cheep aftermarket sets, the factory solid core wires last a couple hundred thousand miles and are easy to check with a multimeter set to ohms, just look at the readings across the whole set and they should all be pretty close to one another, unlike resister wire that changes as the wires get longer

[AngryPopTart]

I've been meaning to post a thread about the plug wires. What's the deal with the resistor plug wire ends? What is the point of this? I have seen a place that sells a non-resistor set of plug wires for the M20, acting like it's a performance gain. Regardless of whether that's true or not, if it's okay to run wires with no resistor ends, it would be cheaper in just about every case to make your own wires.

I wonder if you could even use one of the three Taylor 409 series wires and end up cheaper than a factory style set? Only thing is, is it possible to get correct plugs for my 525i that have the caps on the ends of the plugs instead of using the bare threaded ends because the traditional cap ends are abundant, whereas my 525i is the first time I've seen plug wires that use the bare, threaded ends.

I saw a set of wires once that claimed to be high-performance at "only 500 ohms" resistance... the highest end Taylor's claim 50 ohms.

[winfred]

generlly most the makers of aftermarket wires sets for bmws act like solid core wires is a upgrade when it's actually the style of the factory wires, they don't break down over time like the cheeper resister wire, and the resistaince doesn't change from the long to the short wires, could be a 1000 ohms or more, when they say non resister they are either talking about racing wires where the rf interfearence is not as much of a problem or more commonly that they are not generic spiral core resister wire


I've been meaning to post a thread about the plug wires. What's the deal with the resistor plug wire ends? What is the point of this? I have seen a place that sells a non-resistor set of plug wires for the M20, acting like it's a performance gain.