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Oil in spark plug chamber?

4

49erinnc

Platinum Member
1995 Nissan Maxima SE. Bought a set of plugs to do a quick tune-up. When I went to remove the first of the three, rear coil packs, I noticed that there was a good bit of oil down in the hole. Quite a bit actually. I checked the other two rear plugs but they were clean and dry.

Any idea what would cause the oil to spill into the plug socket on the one? And if you know the answer, how "serious" is this in terms of repair cost? I haven't noticed any performance problems at all and no smoke out of the exhaust FWIW.
 
I'm not a mechanic, and not very good working on cars, but...

The sparkplugs go right into chamber where the fuel ignites. If there is a lot of oil in one of them, then you could have bad/worn seals.
 
I had a 95 Altima that problem. the car was stuttering very bad for about 6 months and couldn't figure out why changed out some parts.

Turns out a Valve Cover gasket set will run you about $25 + an hour of your time.
 
You'll have ignition problems. I remember a similar thread posted not two days ago, you'll probably need a new Valve cover gasket and set of plugs/wires.
 
Originally posted by: j00fek
change your valvecover selas and grommits. should be only like 20-30$
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:

I remember I had an '84 Mustang GT. That POS V8 had aluminum valve covers, and a steel engine. Since the two metals expand at different rates when heated, you couldn't keep gaskets on the damn thing :|

Had to replace them like once a year.
 
These valve covers have large rubber o-rings that seals the sprk plug wells to the top of the valve cover, over time they become hard and brittle thus causing the oil inside the valve cover to find it's way into the tube, replace the valve cover gaskets and ignition wires.
 
I had the exact same problem when we (my cousin, who is a mechanic, and I) were doing maintenance on my car. He said it happens all the time if the valve cover gasket hasnt been changed for a while. Just change it. The parts are cheap, but labor could be high depends on what kind of car
 
Originally posted by: j00fek
someone tell me what a tranny and sparkplug wires have to do with oil in the sparkplug walls?
Click to expand...
The transmission recommendation was sarcastic, but the plug wires recommendation was because the oil will have degraded the boot on the one wire and it should probably be replaced. Plug wires should be changed as a set as long as you're in there, so the recommendation was to replace all of them.

ZV
 
Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Originally posted by: j00fek
someone tell me what a tranny and sparkplug wires have to do with oil in the sparkplug walls?
Click to expand...
The transmission recommendation was sarcastic, but the plug wires recommendation was because the oil will have degraded the boot on the one wire and it should probably be replaced. Plug wires should be changed as a set as long as you're in there, so the recommendation was to replace all of them.

ZV
Click to expand...

It's common practice to fully service the plugs when you're replacing them. By leaving the possibly damaged wires there, you're just delaying problems that could arise at a terrible time. Might as well replace it all at once, as ZV has said.
 
Originally posted by: LoKe
Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Originally posted by: j00fek
someone tell me what a tranny and sparkplug wires have to do with oil in the sparkplug walls?
Click to expand...
The transmission recommendation was sarcastic, but the plug wires recommendation was because the oil will have degraded the boot on the one wire and it should probably be replaced. Plug wires should be changed as a set as long as you're in there, so the recommendation was to replace all of them.

ZV
Click to expand...
It's common practice to fully service the plugs when you're replacing them. By leaving the possibly damaged wires there, you're just delaying problems that could arise at a terrible time. Might as well replace it all at once, as ZV has said.
Click to expand...
Well, for a '95, the plug wires are due anyway. My 951 gets new plugs about every 15,000 miles (15 PSI and copper plugs) but it definitely doesn't need wires that soon.

The OP will want to change everything though since he probably has between 75,000 and 100,000 miles.

ZV
 
The issue with changing the gasket is that the rear valve cover on this car is buried under the manifold and a bunch of other crap. Just looking at it makes me feel ill because it can't be easy to rip all of that stuff out to access the rear valve cover. I had someone come over to look at it and they said it's either the valve cover gasket or the little O-ring/seal that sits near the top of the plug cylinder. Just no way to know which it is without removing it all.

Ughhh...why couldn't it have been on the front where the valve cover is easy to access? Figures. Odd that I haven't noticed any performance issues or smoke though. Could have just recently started to leak however. What sucks is that this is one of those issues where if you take it somewhere, it's like $15 in parts and $300 in labor. 🙁
 
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