Obviously I was an overachiever in the past life and given the Murphy's Touch to keep me humble.
The simplest explanation is that I am freakishly strong, although one could argue that I needed to purchase and utilize a torque wrench much earlier.
It seems like 7.2 foot-pounds does not feel tight enough.
I asked Mom if she thought my Hondas were unreliable and I should get rid of them. She said yes and then seemed to feel that I overreacted to her crazy talk. However, she could not name one reliability problem with the Accord before the misfires.
She just suggested that it "Turned a corner" and somehow stopped being reliable.
It made sense that bad tube seals would lead to misfires and was believable that oil leaks had ruined the spark plugs in a little over a year, but I am not convinced that the distributor is causing misfires. The points are corroded and there is an oil leak, but I do not understand why that would cause a misfire on the same three cylinders that had an oil leak.
I worry that I am fixing a future problem, not the current one.
I do not know why NGK wires would go bad in 13.5 months. I do not see how oil could have ruined them.
Wait.
I had oil in three cylinders from the bad seals. Oil causes misfires because it causes shorts. Does it seep through the threads and cause misfires in the engine, which explodes one or two thousand times a minute?
That sounds highly unlikely.
So, the oil seeped inside the boot, and caused a misfire there?
What had I done about it?
I just thought of it now!
So, with a brand-new distributor sitting right behind me, with that brand-new distributor smell, I just sprayed electrical parts cleaner inside the wires. If that doesn't work, I see if my Civic wires fit?
Is there a proper method of cleaning spark plug wires?
I found a bunch of suggestions. Hand cleaners without abrasives, Simple Green, etc. Some people said to use WD-40, but someone said it attacked rubber. Somebody else said to use silicone spray.
The best price that Google Shopping showed was $41.99 on eBay through some vendor calling itself "AutoZone." AutoZone charges $38.99. I will try to find a coupon code. This one did not work:
If the misfires never returns, I have spare wires!