hi fellow suby owners,

this is not suby related......

i was changing spark plugs on my commuter car (honda accord) and was wondering if it's normal to have oil on the sparkplugs? it may be a stupid question......

thanks....

 

how many miles on the engine?

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Symptoms of oil fouling include black oily coating caused by poor oil control. This situation is more severe than what is seen with the ash-fouled spark plugs and usually represents advanced engine wear. When the oil enters the combustion chamber and covers the core nose of the spark plug, the spark no longer arcs across the gap. Rather it takes the easier path to ground by tracking down the oil on the core nose. This results in a complete cylinder misfire condition. Check for worn valve guides, valve stem seals and/or piston rings. Replacing the spark plug may help for a short time, but the new plug will soon foul.

 

my honda has 230,000 miles. the the spark portion of the spark plug is good (no oil). but when i took out the sparkplug to check it out, there was oil in the sparkplug socket. is it normal?

thanks for the info, btw.

 

This may help if it looks anything like here.

http://www.pdm-racing.com/features/plugs.html

Oh and I agree with Group B. Good luck.

 

sound normal. you may need to replace the valve cover seals where the valve cover meets the spark plug "tubes" (where the spark plugs are located)

 

Yep... I second that. I would only bother with it if there is a puddle of oil down there at the base of the plug... if not no worries.

 

this is typically caused by a leaking valve cover gasket and/or sparkplug wire extension/seal if it is the type that seals a hole at the top of the valve cover.