defective wires-yes. caps-no. that's a new 1. especially 2 new caps. i wouldn't put bosch wires on a bicycle. had lotsa problems with them. 3 sets right out of the box that i installed and a 4th where the cust did the job and brought it to me because it wouldn't start. bad coil wire. i would have like to have seen the light show on your car. i would think the new wires did not seat properly on the new cap and the spark was escaping that way. otherwise, there would had to have been lots cracks, pinholes, etc. to allow the new caps to leak spark. if the caps weren't such a bear to get on with proper wire routing, i'd like to see them on another car, with oe or someone else besides bosch wires. when i say oe, i mean factory, not oe mb wires from the dealer. those were bosch in the box at 1 time and 2 of the 4 sets i had problems with. good luck, chuck.