Hi, I was driving today and my car cut out on me, it would turn over but not start... So i thought it had to be something to do with the spark plugs or distributor.. Called the breakdown guys, who came out and pulled the HT lead off the first spark plug and it was drowned in oil.. the rest are all clean but this one was drenched. He checked the dipstick and it was WAY OVER... looked like about 2 litres of oil above the max mark.. HELP... Where is this oil from? how did it get there?? the guy said it maybe the pil filler cap seal and that probably let the oil out and into the first hole... HELP!! Got new service parts today, so will do oil change and plug change tomorrow...
If your car is a 16v then there is a gasket that seals around the camcover to the head which also has seals around the spark plugs. Possibly it is this inner part of the gasket that has failed.
Hi mate.. Thanks for that.. Yeh its a 16v...but would this not affect all spark plugs?? 3 are completely DRY and only the first one was drenched... Any other suggestions??
You would not get oil in all the spark plug bores if the seal has only failed around the one spark plug in question. I have seen this happen before.
Can you do any work yourself? It is not too hard a job to tackle if you have a basic socket set and spanners. You need to remove the top half of the inlet manifold to gain access to the cam cover. You may need a new inlet manifold gasket as well as the cam cover one. As it is no1 plug that is affected, it may be worth checking the oil filler cap is sealing correctly and not causing the problem first, as the breakdown man suggested.
Have you lost much coolant/had to top up regularly recently? Might be that you have coolant sitting at the bottom of the sump, with the oil floating on top of it... Hope I'm wrong.
I forgot to mention that there was also a LOT of oil on the top of the inlet manifold... is this any help??? Thanks
Danster already answered that one for you... Failed cam-cover gasket is most common reason for oil in a spark-plug hole on a 16v. Have you checked the oil level with the engine cold? Sounds to me like the breakdown guy pulled the dipstick, and read it without wiping then re-dipping like you`re supposed to...
You could drain some out then to get it to the correct level. The car has possibly been overfilled with oil at some stage recently. Maybe the person that did it spilt oil over the inlet manifold while they were at it causing the oil mess you describe. NB Is the oil dipstick tube in one piece? (the orange or red plastic bit the dipstick is inserted into). They commonly break and can cause the dipstick to sit lower than it should causing the level to appear high on the dipstick.
Will drain the oil, steam the engine clean, and change the plugs and see what happens, i checked the dipstick and its fine.. the thing that gets me is that the top of the inlet manifold is covered in oil and the first plug shaft, if it were the gasket, why would the oil be on TOP of the manifold and no traces on the inside of the bonnet??
