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Clicking sound in the engine. It developed over several weeks if not couple of months. If got louder and louder.
Got so loud, that last weekend I listened to the engine through mechanic's stethoscope: the knocking was exactly the loudest on the bottom left of the front engine head (spark plug #4).
On Monday, I noticed unusual shudder while not moving on idle. Symptoms like misfire but CEL did not come on.
On Wed, on a parking lot, CEL came up. I drove home
On Wed night I drove with CEL on a freeway: loud pop, loss of power, regular flapping sound. I drove half a mile to an exit to find out the spark plugs was gone, ignition coil also gone almost entirely.
Towed her back home, researched the forums and went for Time-Sert 4412E-111 (M14 x 1.25).
Got everything purchased, shipped (next day from Amazon, yo). Endoscope is the must have.
Now tips:
Spark plug (NGK Iridium) threads length measures 15mm. Inserts provided with Time-Sert 4412e-111 are 16.8mm. But the plug's reach is 19mm, less 2.5mm for the plugs washer - included 16.8mm are just fine.
No need to research how-tos all over the internet: just watch time-sert official instruction video
You DO need a compressor (see what I did on the pic).
I used grease hoping it would catch shavings. It did; the grease did not drop into the cylinder, yet there were plenty of shavings inside. You cannot see them without endoscope.
Make sure the piston in the bottom position and valves are closed. I cranked it through the crankshaft nut (19mm, passenger's side, wheels all the way to the right). With the endoscope you can see valves open and then close. Also make sure you do not keep endoscope fully in cylinder while cranking - mine got jammed and lights broke.
All shavings fall to the piston below the plug hole where you cannot see them. Only with the endoscope.
Vacuuming the shavings does not work (with plastic tube). Picking up with something would be really hard.
What worked is blowing them out, hence valves should be closed (if I had to crank them closed after re-taping, I wonder if they jammed between the piston and the wall). After you re-tapped the threads, the plug hole is ~16mm wide. So your plastic tube should not be really small (to create enough air pressure) yet not big enough to block the whole plug hole. I retrofitted kite (-surf) pump: one person rotated the tubing, I pumped as hard as I could. It took 10-12 rounds with the endoscope inspection in between. I wish I had / rented an air compressor.
After I fixed the #4, I re-checked the remaining 5 plugs. Nothing catastrophically loose, but out of spec (13 ft/lbs). I tightened to 15 ft/lbs (as my wrench is beam type with 5 ft/lbs). It will be MUCH more difficult to fix plug holes on #1,#2,#3 - you need to visually inspect during two different steps of tapping process plus you need to see the shaving you clean up.
Net result: listen to your car. Totally my fault.
Last edited by bg2128506; 06-10-2017 at 11:50 PM.
Reason: reformatting
Too bad you weren't on the forum earlier, you would have known to suspect a loose plug when you heard the ticking sound. Oh well, you got it fixed for pretty cheap!!
Question: How long were the plugs in before this happened? Who replaced them and was A/S used with the 13.1 spec?
I did replace spark plugs myself while doing the timing belt at 105,000. Now the car has 122,xxx. I did use anti-seizure and torqued by spec with an autozone-rented click-style torque wrench. May be it was not calibrated good enough. But my current beam-style wrench has steps of 5 lbs/ft (from one mark to another). Hence I did ~ 15 lbs/ft with anti-seizure. Hope it's OK.
Hi all, after recently discovering this nice little phenomena of loose spark plugs and the J32 engine I decided to check all 6 of my spark plugs and re-torque them. Upon removing the #2 cylinder's coil pack the rubber boot cracked off of the coil pack and is stuck over the spark plug, unable to remove the plug and after hours of tedious fishing with no luck I simply popped the coil pack back on and have been running it like that for a week now. Already ordered 6 new NGK OEM spark plugs and a coil pack but i still have no idea how i'm going to get the #2 plug out, if anyone has had a similar experience or can offer any tips it would be greatly appreciated.
^^^^ so pretty much the whole shaft of the coil is still in the spark plug tube and attached to the plug?
Can you get a good picture of the coil/plug with your cell phone? How about an endoscope? Mirror?
With #2, you would probably be best served by removing the strut tower bar for for more room. Acquire some picks and/or extended length needle nose pliers and see if you can snag the coil shaft with them?
Last edited by nfnsquared; 06-13-2017 at 09:58 PM.
Spark plug ejection is an old problem from a long time ago, typically happens to #5 cylinder. I have an 07 Accord V6, and #5 got loose at 80k miles, from the factory, never touched. I discovered in advance since I don't believe in running long life plugs. Now using Denso Iridium power IK20 every 30k miles. I check torque of all plugs once every year.
Nice job on the repair!! Things sometimes happen that we disregard as nothing and turns out to be major issue. Other times we freak out over insignificant noises.......
I just went out there and checked the torque on my spark plugs because I have been hearing some noise lol. After reading a few of these threads I got to thinking and was freaking myself out. They were fine though. Think I need new coils and a valve adjustment. BTW I change my plugs at 130,000 and now I am at 160,000. PO changed them at some point but I forget when and I changed them when I bought the car as I do a tune up with every car I buy used. I installed them with anti seize at 13ft lb and I just re torqued them to 15ft lb now 30,000 miles later. I am thinking about changing them again soon.
^^^^ so pretty much the whole shaft of the coil is still in the spark plug tube and attached to the plug?
Can you get a good picture of the coil/plug with your cell phone? How about an endoscope? Mirror?
With #2, you would probably be best served by removing the strut tower bar for for more room. Acquire some picks and/or extended length needle nose pliers and see if you can snag the coil shaft with them?
Unfortunately just the very end of the coil shaft cracked on top of where the socket would turn the plug, right on the middle ceramic part. This video I found perfectly describes the shituation i'm in.
Now if only I had a tool small enough to get in between there and pull the end of the boot off I can finally replace my plugs and that coil pack... speaking of, if it recommended to just replace all 6 coil packs at once or should I just save the $100?
$100? I want to know where youre finding decent coils for $100. They wanted $65 for oem when I looked. I bought a knock off brand for 35 and times 6 thats still 200. I was not happy with the quality of the knock off one. I mean it worked but it shows wear already not even 10K later and I think is contributing to harder starts. I want to replace all my coils but without spending $350. But I also want OEM this time. BTW the off brand one was called DriveWorks I believe.
Wow. Quite the adventure. I checked the spark plug torque about once every 15-20K miles when I had my 3G because of this problem. There were always at least 2 that were a little on the loose side.
Clicking sound in the engine. It developed over several weeks if not couple of months. If got louder and louder.
Got so loud, that last weekend I listened to the engine through mechanic's stethoscope: the knocking was exactly the loudest on the bottom left of the front engine head (spark plug #4).
On Monday, I noticed unusual shudder while not moving on idle. Symptoms like misfire but CEL did not come on.
On Wed, on a parking lot, CEL came up. I drove home
On Wed night I drove with CEL on a freeway: loud pop, loss of power, regular flapping sound. I drove half a mile to an exit to find out the spark plugs was gone, ignition coil also gone almost entirely.
Towed her back home, researched the forums and went for Time-Sert 4412E-111 (M14 x 1.25).
Got everything purchased, shipped (next day from Amazon, yo). Endoscope is the must have.
Now tips:
Spark plug (NGK Iridium) threads length measures 15mm. Inserts provided with Time-Sert 4412e-111 are 16.8mm. But the plug's reach is 19mm, less 2.5mm for the plugs washer - included 16.8mm are just fine.
You DO need a compressor (see what I did on the pic).
I used grease hoping it would catch shavings. It did; the grease did not drop into the cylinder, yet there were plenty of shavings inside. You cannot see them without endoscope.
Make sure the piston in the bottom position and valves are closed. I cranked it through the crankshaft nut (19mm, passenger's side, wheels all the way to the right). With the endoscope you can see valves open and then close. Also make sure you do not keep endoscope fully in cylinder while cranking - mine got jammed and lights broke.
All shavings fall to the piston below the plug hole where you cannot see them. Only with the endoscope.
Vacuuming the shavings does not work (with plastic tube). Picking up with something would be really hard.
What worked is blowing them out, hence valves should be closed (if I had to crank them closed after re-taping, I wonder if they jammed between the piston and the wall). After you re-tapped the threads, the plug hole is ~16mm wide. So your plastic tube should not be really small (to create enough air pressure) yet not big enough to block the whole plug hole. I retrofitted kite (-surf) pump: one person rotated the tubing, I pumped as hard as I could. It took 10-12 rounds with the endoscope inspection in between. I wish I had / rented an air compressor.
After I fixed the #4, I re-checked the remaining 5 plugs. Nothing catastrophically loose, but out of spec (13 ft/lbs). I tightened to 15 ft/lbs (as my wrench is beam type with 5 ft/lbs). It will be MUCH more difficult to fix plug holes on #1,#2,#3 - you need to visually inspect during two different steps of tapping process plus you need to see the shaving you clean up.
I too have joined the club on blowing out a spark plug last night on the interstate. I have had a ticking for probably over 50,000 miles with the intentions of getting to it but I thought it was related to just needing a valve adjustment and never thought it was the spark plugs. No shops I have continuously gone to and mentioned the ticking during oil changes have suggested it being the spark plugs as well. The only thing is that the mechanic said it is one of the rear cylinder plugs so he is hesitant on tapping in new threads out of fear of them being crooked from there being so little space. I didn't get a chance to ask which cylinder it is but I'm assuming it is #2 since that seems to be most common. Does anyone have some advice/pointers I could give him for effectively helicoiling or using Time Serm on the rear cylinders? I will from now on be checking spark plug torque every oil change or so. Thanks in advance.
If it's a rear cylinder, it might be just a tight space. I did peek into the hole with the tap in, as you need to make sure the tap goes all the way through and at the same time you don't want it to fall into a cylinder (the instructions read to go until the resistance eases and few more turns).
May be don't use heavy grease; the instructions tell to use some oil. So whatever shavings fall into the cylinder, you can blow out with the compressor.
Will be PITA, but doable.
Picked up a type-s a few months back and am now getting to know some of the issues. Would this be the correct tool for an 07 type-s? Any thoughts please. Ejected a plug yesterday and dealer wants 500 to tap and use a helicoil plus 140 for a used coil pack.... Not happening. Trying to do as much research as I can with such limited time.
#5 came out and I am pulling the head to rethread the spark plug hole. Wish I had seen this thread before my problem occurred but I have the shop tools and time. I inherited a 2001 CL Type S from my dad. He had a timing belt replaced at 85,000 miles and it is time again so I'll be buying all the parts I need . yester day I left the shop after trying to remove the Crank bolt with no success. I have seen a video that suggest heating the washer. I wanna try this but also want to know for sure abnout the direction of ther threads. Is it as usual Lefty loose, or are the threads reverse? Thank you for any helpful comments, Jon Sears
Lefty loosey, it's just really tight and with the dab of thread-lock. If you have access to the shop, try bigger gun. I used 3/4 inch from the other mechanic and it took the nut right off, but I've heard people have luck with this big earthquake from harbor freight or high torque Milwaukee electric gun.
I wouldn't heat it, as you are risking damaging everything nearby, like balancer, front main seal, belt, crank sensor and whatever else there is.
Thanks Peter I believe there is a 3/4" impact in the shop. I had not thought of it but it should be my next attempt. Slept in today the got lazy but I'll head over in the morning
I used a breaker bar, with a metal pipe on it and pinch point bar (~70'') as an extension (supported by a 6x6 pole where breaker bar made right angle). I virtually stood with both legs and slightly jumped.
Heavy lisle socket and an impact gun had no effect.
I used a breaker bar, with a metal pipe on it and pinch point bar (~70'') as an extension (supported by a 6x6 pole where breaker bar made right angle). I virtually stood with both legs and slightly jumped. Heavy lisle socket and an impact gun had no effect.
Lefty loosey, it's just really tight and with the dab of thread-lock. If you have access to the shop, try bigger gun. I used 3/4 inch from the other mechanic and it took the nut right off, but I've heard people have luck with this big earthquake from harbor freight or high torque Milwaukee electric gun.
I wouldn't heat it, as you are risking damaging everything nearby, like balancer, front main seal, belt, crank sensor and whatever else there is.
Thanks Peter, Turns out my brother had that Harbor Freight gun in the closet. WOW. now I am looking at repairing the spark plug threads. I put the tap that came in the kit I bought in a 19 MM socket and it does not fit down that hole. I have looked through the service manual and the tube the ignition coil and spark plug sit in is in numerous diagrams but never mentioned, is that tube removeable to preform the thread repair? My plug blew out of the ( rear bank drivers side) , That is the # 3 cylinder?
06-10-2017, 11:48 PM
Blown out spark plug #4: lessons learned & tips.
