oil on spark plugs
#1
oil on spark plugs
My girlfriend has a '98 Neon with the SOHC engine with just over 80K miles on it. Well, its been running fine but it has has really bad preignition, especially with the air conditioning on. It also has really weak acceleration but I figured that was probably due to the 3 speed auto/ 4 cylinder combo and I'm spoiled with my 4.0l Cherokee with a lot of bolt-ons. Anyway, we were down at my parents' house yesterday and I pulled one of the spark plugs to see what kind of condition they were in and they looked new but they had oil all over them. WTF? Is the valve cover gasket leaking? I don't know much about OHC engines, I'm used to the 4.0l on my Jeep. Her car seems to be in pretty good condition other than this, its had a recent tune up and had the the head gasket replaced, the timing belt changed, and the A/C recharged. I also need to pull the receipts on it to see what all was done in the tune up last year, it was right before i met her. The spark plug wires appeared to be new Mopar wires, but they could be original since her engine is really clean. Also, I couldn't find a distributor anywhere on it? Do they have distributorless ignition?
Sorry for all the Newb questions, I'm pretty decent working on cars, I just dont know crap about Neons.
Sorry for all the Newb questions, I'm pretty decent working on cars, I just dont know crap about Neons.
#2
#3
RE: oil on spark plugs
oil on the plugs/in the plug tubes can come from one of two areas:
the base of the plug tube, may lose its seal and allow oil to get in there.. if thats where the leak is at, then yeah you gotta follow that pic you posted.
but.. 90% of the time, the culprit is the spark plug tube seals.. these are the seals that seal the tubes against the valve cover. check and replace those before replacing the tubes themselves, as this is the most common problem and usually the fix. may also want to replace the valve cover gasket at the same time.
nope, the neon has no distributor. makes life simple huh?
the base of the plug tube, may lose its seal and allow oil to get in there.. if thats where the leak is at, then yeah you gotta follow that pic you posted.
but.. 90% of the time, the culprit is the spark plug tube seals.. these are the seals that seal the tubes against the valve cover. check and replace those before replacing the tubes themselves, as this is the most common problem and usually the fix. may also want to replace the valve cover gasket at the same time.
nope, the neon has no distributor. makes life simple huh?
#5
#7
RE: oil on spark plugs
So I took the car to the dealer to get it fixed. Its my girlfriend's car and we both live in apartments so I have nowhere to work on it. I couldn't believe how much it cost to get it fixed. They replaced the spark plug tubes and the gaskets and it cost $500, $420 of it was labor. I think she got ripped off, it didnt seem like that involved of a job. It pisses me off that they charged a diagnostic fee when I told them what was wrong with it and they confirmed that was it. Luckily, since shes in grad school her parents picked up the bill.
It runs better and seems to have a little more power. Its still getting some preignition when the A/C is on, but im thinking that might be due to the fact that she deals with a lot of traffic and its carboned up inside. I redlined it 0-100 getting on the interstate to hopefully clean some of the crap out of it since she drives it like an old lady and it seems to be running better now. I was also thinking maybe the fuel injectors might need to be cleaned. Its only got 80K on it and its had a recent tune up and head gasket. It runs great without the A/C on.
It runs better and seems to have a little more power. Its still getting some preignition when the A/C is on, but im thinking that might be due to the fact that she deals with a lot of traffic and its carboned up inside. I redlined it 0-100 getting on the interstate to hopefully clean some of the crap out of it since she drives it like an old lady and it seems to be running better now. I was also thinking maybe the fuel injectors might need to be cleaned. Its only got 80K on it and its had a recent tune up and head gasket. It runs great without the A/C on.
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#8
#9
RE: oil on spark plugs
The car does learn how you drive to a certain extent