Gunk/crap all over my coil covers/plugs

[SBVERT03]

Hey guys,

I bought this car about 4 years ago. I had some issues with overheating early on and feared it was a head gasket. I eventually found a small leak in the radiator and replaced it and things have seemed fine since then. However, I've only put maybe 2-3k miles on the car in that time.

Yesterday I noticed the coolant level in the overflow looked a little low so I decided to add some and burp the system. This morning I decided to pick up a compression test kit and block tester for some peace of mind. The block test came back negative, so I moved on to the compression test.

I removed the coil cover in cylinder 5 first and there was all kinds of gunk and crap covering it and down in the plug hole and on the plug. I tried to scrape some of it out but I didn't even want to remove the plug because there was so much. What does this look like to you guys? Oil/coolant? What could cause this? Sorry for the crappy pictures.

Thanks guys


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[SBVERT03]

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[SBVERT03]

All the coil covers on the driver side look like that and they have gunk down in the hole. The passenger side are all clean.


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[nxhappy]

Is that on the passenger side in the rear? my boot also looked the same. My plug had "white dust" on the threads. We concluded water got down in there during a washing and caused a chemical reaction with the water and aluminum. If your plugs look OK and it's not overheating I would not worry about it.

 

[SBVERT03]

It's on the driver side in all 4 holes. I'm thinking your right though and that it may just be from washing the car! I'm going to check the plugs once I get them cleaned out


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[SBVERT03]

Well I haven't even gotten a chance to look at the plugs. I've been dealing with another issue that arose.

Long story short both bolts holding the driver side COP cover snapped when removing the cover. Then as I tried to tap it out the damn tap snapped off in one of them! So I guess I'm going to have to take it somewhere and see if they can deal with it.

It's fine to drive the car without the covers on correct?


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[bigmoose]

I wouldn't without securing the COPs. They don't secure to the plug so you'd probably get misfires if they are not held down.

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[SBVERT03]

I wouldn't without securing the COPs. They don't secure to the plug so you'd probably get misfires if they are not held down.

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Any suggestions on how to do that? I'm going to need to take it to a shop. Luckily it's only a few miles away but it'd be nice not to have to get it towed if possible. Spent another couple hours trying to get the damn thing out today with no luck.


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[MG0h3]

Put the coil cover on and then use a bungy cord to hold it down would be the easiest fix. Wont take much force and be careful what you hook it too of course.

 

[bigmoose]

Any suggestions on how to do that? I'm going to need to take it to a shop. Luckily it's only a few miles away but it'd be nice not to have to get it towed if possible. Spent another couple hours trying to get the damn thing out today with no luck.


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No idea, sorry

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[Zemedici]

I'd rather have it towed imo. Vs dealing with having bungee chords running through my engine bay / etc