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V6 Oil & Water In Spark Plug Wells
Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 5:53 pm
by BongoBonkers
Whilst installing new spark plugs I sadly found a small amount of oil in one spark plug well and a small amount of water in another....The two wells in question are the 'rear-most' ones (i.e. towards the back of the vehicle) and the oil is in the driver's side of the V and the water is in the passenger side....Oil use is zero and water use is very very low (approx 50 ml per two months...?)
Does anyone know what I need to do to fix this and also how harmful it is to ignore it? I need to ignore it really in the short term as we have approx 3000m to do over Xmas and New Year but obviously I don't want to cause any lasting damage....
Thanks for any help
Re: V6 Oil & Water In Spark Plug Wells
Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2011 7:15 pm
by M 80NGO
BongoBonkers wrote:Whilst installing new spark plugs I sadly found a small amount of oil in one spark plug well and a small amount of water in another....The two wells in question are the 'rear-most' ones (i.e. towards the back of the vehicle) and the oil is in the driver's side of the V and the water is in the passenger side....Oil use is zero and water use is very very low (approx 50 ml per two months...?)
Does anyone know what I need to do to fix this and also how harmful it is to ignore it? I need to ignore it really in the short term as we have approx 3000m to do over Xmas and New Year but obviously I don't want to cause any lasting damage....
Thanks for any help
Was it clean or dirty
oil, how much
oil was there, is this near the
oil filler cap and could have been the result of a clumsy fill up, it could be the remnance of a replaced rocker cover gasket, i'd clean it out and just monitor the situation over a couple of days

is it dirty water in the other side or coolant ?
Re: V6 Oil & Water In Spark Plug Wells
Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2011 12:17 am
by cheffy34
BongoBonkers wrote:Whilst installing new spark plugs I sadly found a small amount of oil in one spark plug well and a small amount of water in another....The two wells in question are the 'rear-most' ones (i.e. towards the back of the vehicle) and the oil is in the driver's side of the V and the water is in the passenger side....Oil use is zero and water use is very very low (approx 50 ml per two months...?)
Does anyone know what I need to do to fix this and also how harmful it is to ignore it? I need to ignore it really in the short term as we have approx 3000m to do over Xmas and New Year but obviously I don't want to cause any lasting damage....
Thanks for any help
If it gathers to much it will missfire, Im suprised it isn't already to be honest especially with the water ingress.
Short term soak it up somehow i use toilet roll
Mine always took a bit of
oil in no1 plug well, POSSIBLY just rocker cover gasket if to much gathers it will missfire mine also takes water into various plugs depends how fast you drive through the standing water on the road

it always used to missfire in the rain untill i made a cunning splash gaurd, i had it happen numerous times

, I nipped the rocker cover down a bit and stopped the
oil leaking to the plug
Not saying that is what is wrong with yours but sounds very familier to me
Dar
Re: V6 Oil & Water In Spark Plug Wells
Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 11:30 am
by BongoBonkers
Hi Cheffy
Thanks for the reply. Do you think water in the plug wells is likely to come from an external source i.e. rainwater splashing up? Do you know if there is a possibility of a coolant leak in that area? It didn't look like coolant but it's a bit hard to tell shining a light down the hole as it were...?
As you suggest, a picture is starting to form regarding my other post on misfiring....It's unfortunate that I have already replaced dis cap, rotor arm and HT leads attempting to sort this out but that's life I guess and I'm sure those parts will benefit from being renewed (although the bank balance hasn't...)
Thanks
Re: V6 Oil & Water In Spark Plug Wells
Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 5:27 pm
by cheffy34
BongoBonkers wrote:Hi Cheffy
Thanks for the reply. Do you think water in the plug wells is likely to come from an external source i.e. rainwater splashing up? Do you know if there is a possibility of a coolant leak in that area? It didn't look like coolant but it's a bit hard to tell shining a light down the hole as it were...?
As you suggest, a picture is starting to form regarding my other post on misfiring....It's unfortunate that I have already replaced dis cap, rotor arm and HT leads attempting to sort this out but that's life I guess and I'm sure those parts will benefit from being renewed (although the bank balance hasn't...)
Thanks
Yes possibly, if you drive hard through standing water and heavy rain it comes up through the scav fan on a direct collision course with your distributer

check you have a gasket/o ring on the dizzy cap and i made a cunning protector out of gaffa tape and a 2ltr icecream container no more ingress probs
Cant see coolant leaking into plug wells to be honest
Dar
Re: V6 Oil & Water In Spark Plug Wells
Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 9:51 pm
by M 80NGO
BongoBonkers wrote:Hi Cheffy
Thanks for the reply. Do you think water in the plug wells is likely to come from an external source i.e. rainwater splashing up? Do you know if there is a possibility of a coolant leak in that area? It didn't look like coolant but it's a bit hard to tell shining a light down the hole as it were...?
As you suggest, a picture is starting to form regarding my other post on misfiring....It's unfortunate that I have already replaced dis cap, rotor arm and HT leads attempting to sort this out but that's life I guess and I'm sure those parts will benefit from being renewed (although the bank balance hasn't...)
Thanks
Dunno why i bother sometimes

Re: V6 Oil & Water In Spark Plug Wells
Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 10:05 pm
by BongoBonkers
M 80NGO wrote:BongoBonkers wrote:Whilst installing new spark plugs I sadly found a small amount of oil in one spark plug well and a small amount of water in another....The two wells in question are the 'rear-most' ones (i.e. towards the back of the vehicle) and the oil is in the driver's side of the V and the water is in the passenger side....Oil use is zero and water use is very very low (approx 50 ml per two months...?)
Does anyone know what I need to do to fix this and also how harmful it is to ignore it? I need to ignore it really in the short term as we have approx 3000m to do over Xmas and New Year but obviously I don't want to cause any lasting damage....
Thanks for any help
Was it clean or dirty
oil, how much
oil was there, is this near the
oil filler cap and could have been the result of a clumsy fill up, it could be the remnance of a replaced rocker cover gasket, i'd clean it out and just monitor the situation over a couple of days

is it dirty water in the other side or coolant ?
M 80NGO wrote:BongoBonkers wrote:Hi Cheffy
Thanks for the reply. Do you think water in the plug wells is likely to come from an external source i.e. rainwater splashing up? Do you know if there is a possibility of a coolant leak in that area? It didn't look like coolant but it's a bit hard to tell shining a light down the hole as it were...?
As you suggest, a picture is starting to form regarding my other post on misfiring....It's unfortunate that I have already replaced dis cap, rotor arm and HT leads attempting to sort this out but that's life I guess and I'm sure those parts will benefit from being renewed (although the bank balance hasn't...)
Thanks
Dunno why i bother sometimes

Hey Mr M80NGO, I certainly didn't mean to offend you. Thanks for your advice. I only directed my reply at Cheffy as he has been active on another post I had regarding a mis-fire that is now starting to form one big picture for me.
Re: V6 Oil & Water In Spark Plug Wells
Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:31 pm
by M 80NGO
No worries dude

all is calm in Bongoville
