So I noticed my car was misfiring. I parked it. Let it sit for a couple hours. Started it back up and got a check engine light p0304. So I checked cylinder 4 and the coil was seized up in there. Would not want to come out. It broke. How can I get it out? I tried my channel locks and it doesn't want to budge at all. So I'm guess I'm going to have to drill in the center of it and try to pull it out?? This happened to anybody else?? Luckily it's an easy access in the front. I really hope the threads aren't damaged. Coil packs are original, vehicle has 160,000 mi on it. I replaced the plugs around 124 ,000 mi with OEM NGK and everything was torqued to spec. I read that a coil can seize to a plug if the plug gets loose so I'm a bit worried. Any help would be great.

 

First thing to do is take a deep breath because this is plastic seized in an aluminum head. Could be worse i.e. a steel bolt.

Remove that rubber seal that's still on there and get some penetrating oil around the edges to help break it free. Let it soak for at least an hour.

Removing that seal should also give you more of the coil to grab onto with channel locks. Twist back and fourth slowly and be patient, it should eventually break free.

Worst case scenario... if you're comfortable popping the valve cover off, doing that would certainly break the coil free. Get all the other coils out (and the wiring harness, valve cover grommets etc.) and then gently pry up on the valve cover on one of the pry points next to that cylinder.

 

Thank you for the response. I just got the rubber out and I sprayed the heck out of it with WD-40. Going to let it sit for an hour. I can only imagine if this happened on the firewall side. 🫣

 

So I let it soak for about an hour and a half and got my vice grips out and tried wiggling it around and it doesn't want to move at all. So I soaked it again. I'm going to let it sit overnight.

 

WD40 sucks. Get a real penetrating oil like PB blaster or kroil

 

I let it soak in WD40 Specialist over night. Still no give. Worse now. Wish I had Kroil. Take off Valve cover now??? Looks like I have to remove the intake manifold to get that off

 

probably what I'm going to have to do

 

Can you get a pickle fork or a pair of pry bars under that lip on the coil and pry up?

Didn't see the second pic. Woof that's rough.

Ya I'd say skip right to valve cover removal. Don't bother with anything else at this point.

Try to be really careful about pulling the valve cover straight up after removing the acorn nuts and grommets. Might be worth having a friend help.

 

Got the valve cover off. Going to borrow a heat gun on Thursday. Heat that sucker up around the shaft. Hopefully be able to pull it out. The video shows using a map torch but that's too hot in my opinion on aluminum. I'm going to try the heat gun approach first. Should be enough to melt that rubber in there and be able to pull it out...We will see

 

Best of luck. I've never seen a coil stuck like that. Any chance it's aftermarket?

At least those cam lobes look in good condition.

 

I don't think there's any chance that it's aftermarket. They're original from 2008.

 

So far no good luck. Heat gun isn't really helping. I think I need a torch. Whatever is in there has to melt for me to be able to pull it out. The heat gun isn't really melting it. This sucks. Plus I have a old towel that I cut a hole in so the tube can stick out so little pieces and such don't go into my motor. I will keep picking at it. Sucker doesn't want to move at all.

 

Agreed, MAP gas will be too much heat for that thin wall spark plug tube. One step less than that is a propane torch, might be perfect here. But along the lines of the old towel, if you're going to be using a torch the towel will probably catch fire. You can grab a soldering heat shield from home depot and cut a hole in this, to protect all the valvetrain from the heat;
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Oatey-9-...4002/100345508
Heat + penetrating fluid is going to be your best friend here.

Best of luck dude, this is insane. Did the engine ever overheat?

 

Damping the towel with some water should help with catching fire.

Amazon has soldering heat shields that have holes cut out already too if that makes things easier!

 

You might have to resort to drilling it out.

Where did you source the spark plugs from? I've heard of counterfeit plugs doing this.

 

Speaking of drilling it out.... maybe drill a hole as deep as possible (ideally the entire length of the coil if that's possible) and fill that hole up with penetrating fluid.
If you have an air compressor with a rubber tipped blow gun, press the rubber tip against the hole you drilled, maybe it'll push the coil up Doubtful on this, if twisting with channel locks did nothing.

Just tryna think outside the box since this is quite the conundrum.

 

Nope never over heated. Might be tough to cut a hole in one of those soldering blankets.

Weird, that link for some reason brought me to a totally different website and it was marked as a Spam site and it wouldn't let me open it. I will check out Amazon. Yep, I damped the towel.

RockAuto OEM ngks. I read that the spark plugs can loosen up and that causes exhaust gases to heat everything up. Hopefully I can get it out and see what the spark plug looks like. See if it was loose.

Good idea. I do have rubber tip blow air gun.

Well I made some progress. I unwinded the coil that's in it pulled that out. Then the innards came out. So I started chiseling away at the casing and this is where I'm at.

 

It would be nice to, perhaps, have something like the below needle nose vice grip, grinded down on either side to 'thin' the jaws.

Coupled with a slide hammer assembly, like below.


Insert the slim jaws & grip, as best as possible, in that ever so tight space on either side of the coil remnant and give it a good outward (shock) pull?

 

Sorry, I meant to use this picture instead.

 

Clean the inside best you can then keep spraying it down with oil. Acetone and transfluid 50/50 works great.

 

Got it out. Was super happy but then I noticed the very end rubber portion is still stuck in there and breaking apart. 😑It did feel like the spark plug is a little bit loose so I can move it from side to side unless it's about to come apart. I need to go to harbor freight and get some longer picks. The ones I have are too short. Any ideas how to get that rubber out 😆 also noticed sludged and those holes on the side. Might have been from heating that area up with the heat gun

 

You could purchase a hole saw drill bit that would fit the ID of the tube, connect it to a piece of rod that you would turn by hand to cut away the rubber. Then use compress air to blow the hole out or a vacuum.

 

Good idea. I will have to try that if this doesn't work.

Let's see if I can get it out this way. With one of these

 

Got it out with middle set worked perfect

 

Nice now you can breathe a sigh of relief.

Remember Honda's torque spec for plugs is with antiseize, but NGK themselves say not to use antiseize. So if you use Honda's torque spec but don't use antiseize, you're under-torquing the plugs.

 

Yes, four and five was loose. Four was super loose so those exhaust gases were getting in there. Heating things up causing that shield to expand. Torque them all without anti-seize to 20 ft lb. The plug


didn't even look bad at all!