Well... it's been a while since I've been on the forum... just thought I'd share my recent story.
So, I get on a plane and fly to Dallas for what I thought would be a relaxing week. I leave my home and my TL with my soon to be hubs thinking again that everything is cool. No sooner did I get off the plane, I get a phone call saying my car was acting weird. Apparently on the way back from dropping me off at the airport it was sputtering and whatever. Of course I ask him, "have you been hot rodding my car again"?!?!?!?! He says "noooooooo!" I'm like whatever. I had a local shop do a tune up on my car recently and the idiot thought it didn't have spark plugs!!!! Anyways to make a very long story short, my spark plug apparently fried itself and my coil pack... lol After my hubs promising to have it fixed before I get home the rear passenger window won't roll up completely now and the AC in our house went out... so I am home now and the AC is fixed but my car hasn't been touched. I purchased some better spark plugs and a used coil pack for $20. It's at the shop now. Any suggestions on the window issue? I just hope my daughter didn't put something down it. sigh... here's some pictures for your enjoyment.



Sadly saying goodbye to her this morning.

 

how the heck does that happen?! wow... at least the whole thing didn't catch fire... wow...

 

To have the metal melt like that is unbelievable... I'd check if melted metal got on the pistons.

~Cheers~

 

The plug is burned upwards so we are assuming at this point and praying it didn't... lol nothing was scorched in the head and the threads still looked good. We are going to have a sleeve/heili coil( however you spell it...) put in as we speak... yea I'm a lucky girl... I was ready to buy your entire motor Go90go! Man, I'm sad now.
It's crazy bc their was air coming from the coil pack(the seal was fried). well, atleast I have a set of AP1's now... unfortunately they are sitting until I get the car fixed... ugh... makes me sick! when it rains it pours!

 

I'm sorry Correction there was flames coming from the coil pack seal!

 

Wow, that's unheard of. I hope everything will be ok, though. You could've been the third 3.5TL with the motor of the first one, haha.

~Cheers~

 

Just got the phone call... she's all fixed. $80. F & L imports in cleveland tennessee fixed it. They put an iron insert in. Not a heili coil. All together $40 to tow,$20 for iridium plugs, $20 for coil pack, and $80 to install and fix. Time for wash and wax!!!!

 

So we take it the TL is humming as usual again, if so, cool!

 

Yup I picked her up this afternoon... she purred like always. I'm hoping the new iridium plugs make a small difference. Weird though, no sooner did I pull into the car wash my mother in law called me. She's balling her eyes out, she says sadly "my truck just blew up and I'm stranded on the side of the highway." I said "ill be there in five minutes!!!" Man...lol now I have to worry about her. Poor thing. I loaned her my other vehicle. Seriously like it said before...when it rains it pours! Atleast for now mine are fixed. Makes me sleep better at night!

 

Looks really bad from the pictures, but thankfully there were no major damage. Good luck with everything!

 

It looks like the tune-up shop did not install the spark plug tightly. Exhaust gases leaked around the spark plug and melted COP, etc. This may have damaged the head at the spark plug threads. You have reasons to pursue legal action, but it will be difficult to prove. It may be cheaper to just pull the head and repair. Life is full of such problems.

good luck