As I pulled the boot from the spark plugs in my 2000 Neon, I noticed they were full of oil. I did my best to clean out the oil from one of the chambers after removing the boot. I then removed the spark plug which was covered in oil..well, minus the ignitor. I came to the conclusion that oil isn't getting into the cylinder, but rather on the exterior area of the spark plugs. How concerned should I be and what can I do to fix this? Thank you!

 

If the oil is on the outside of the plug and not the inside then it sounds like a valve cover gasket leak. Clean off the area and see if you can tell where oil is coming from. You may have to run engine and just watch for any signs of an oil leak.

 

enough oil on the plugs and u'll get erratic misses, try tapping the tubes down a lil if that dont work the tube seals need to be done

 

I had the same issue with mine, it ended up being that 2 of the spark plug tubes came up from the head a little bit, i just pulled them all out and put a little dab of red loctite on it and pushed it back down into the head.

A new valve gasket also includes new tube seals so I just replaced all 4 seals and the valve gasket since you need to remove the valve cover to do the repair anyway. It's real simple on these neons' too. Just remove the plugs & wires, ignition coil, theres 10 bolts that hold the valve cover on and then you just take care of the tubes & seals and re-assemble. It only took about 40 minutes to complete and you back to running good as new!

 

Kingjim got it. Pull the valve cover, replace the seals, tap the tubes in good, and then put the valve cover back on. Pretty easy job.

 

mine stopped leaking with just a simple tap back down

free and took about 60 seconds
If it didnt work I would pull the cover but it worked good and that was many Kms ago

 

How do i take out the oil in the spark plug Chambers??
Im having the same problem. We were about to change the spark plugs and they were drenched in oli! Gonna go buy the new valve gasket with new tube seals. Hope this fixes the problem! Just got my 2000 Neon on Thursday!!
Already cleaned the throttle body, changed the oil, added steering fluid and replaced camshaft position sensor.

 

Yeah just replace the new valve gasket and seals. You'll probably also find that some of the tubes have lifted out of the head so just tap them back down (make sure you put a block of wood or something over it before you hit it)

If they were lifted out a little, I pulled mine completely out and got in there and dried up all the oil that way it wouldn't come back out again. I heard of people putting some red loctite in there to hold them down, I personally didn't do this and have had no issues since but your welcome to make your own decision!

 

Thanks Kingjim9. Ill be working on the car today!! Ill keep you posted on how everything goes.