My M100 is burning spark plug wires

[dkellis]

Hi,
I'm a new and happy M100 owner for 6 weeks but the car just went back to Planet Auto a second time with a burned spark plug wire. This is 3 days after getting a new set of wires.
The symptoms are the same: a consistent miss, no power, and a hot wax/plastic smell before and during the onset of the problem.
PA installed a new set of Lotus wires from Dave Bean to solve the problem the first time it happened.
I suspect some ignition part is blowing out a wire. Any ideas as to which part?

Thanks,

Dave

[johnbenk]

Can you more clear on the meaning "burnt" are the wires touching each other under the top engine cover after removing the plate. Get some water into a garden hand spray start engine with top plate cover removed
if you can in a dark garage and spray leads with water and see if sparks are jumping across the leads this would cause them to burn as each cyclinder is firing its plug on the down stroke ie ( they are in pairs and fire using a "waste spark" method of spark distribution as each cylinder is paired with its opposite number ie one with 4 and two with three. one plug fires from centre electrode to the side electrode while the other fires from side to centre electrode . the disconnected spark plug lead acts as one plate of a capacitor with the engine being the other plate. these two capacitor plates are charged as a current surge (spark) jumps across the gap of the connected spark plug the plates are then discharged as the secondary energy is dissipated in an oscillating current across the gap of the plug still connected and this may account for the "wires burning"if they are touching the metal plate when they are under its cover or touching each other. Try running car without metal spark plug top engine plate after replacing burnt plug lead the leads should have a seperator which splits the leads going into each plug to stop coming into contact with each other

[ESM]

If you haven't already renewed the plugs I'd check them out. If there's a conductor stuck in one of the gaps you'd get no spark (it'd stop the paired cylinder firing as well) and a higher current than normal.

There are two coils each feeding two cylinders so if its only burning one wire plugs seem the most likely cause. If the problem was upstream of the plugs you'd be burning at least two wires.