RUSTY Spark Plugs

[Andrewkb]

Last week, my car misfired in the morning. By afternoon, the car is choking and sounded like a VW Bettle/Harley/Heavily modded WRX ! Misfiring heavily.

 

Pop over the C&C satellite service center. They suggest plugs problem, but since they don't do diagnoistic, they suggest I pop over to their main service center instead.

 

By weekend, the car is quite undrivable and I got the plugs changed over the weekend, and had a shock of my life when I look into plug 1 hole !

 

This is on my Airtrek, and apparently water goes thru the air scoop and seep through the spark plug cover and settled in the spark plug bay.

 

I believe the water are all flooding around plug 1 and seep thru the rubber boot down the plug well.

 

From the look of it, it seems like it had been rusting for 3 to 6 months, which actually coincide with the extremely thunderstorm that we encounter since December till now.

 

However, C&C claimed that they've not encountered any other complains and suggest I leave the car with them to test by spraying some water on it (which I doubt will be equivalent to the thunderstorm that we get for hours). They do not have a solution for it right now :-(

 

I doubt I'm not the only one facing this problem (apparently, EVO and Airtrek both have this problem, based on the forums that I read). Other countries I guess is not as bad, but in Singapore, with the car park under the rain for HOURS with, say a cold engine, I believe water will seep thru the spark plug cover eventually.

 

Any thoughts on this ?

Edited April 27, 2007 by Andrewkb

[Mzrmazda3]

 

1st time i see a spark plug rusted that like that

[Watwheels]

Aiyo. Like that next thunderstorm come, how? Use something to cover the air-scoop?

 

Or drive to nearby MSCP take cover?

Edited April 27, 2007 by Watwheels

[Ronnie]

question is, when you have misfiring, how come you didnt get the mechs to take out the plugs to check first? and procrastinate till you cannot tarhan?

[Andrewkb]

Well, Satellite Center don't do diagnostic and suggest I go main service center. They suspect only, still have to queue and they charge $ for both diagnostic and plugs ! (Unless I go back main agent).

[Watwheels]

Bcos TS and mechanic are not psyhics?

[Andrewkb]

Just FYI, Some extracts:

-----------------

EvolutionM:

"well today my wife came home saying her car breaks up under boost, so i drove it and it breaks up very bad. so 1st thing i do is check the plugs. cylinder one was full of water not inside the head but on the top part to the point the plug was submreged. i took my shop vac and vacumed the water out and was able to get the plug out with out water going into the head . so i checked 234 and they were fine no water. my question is how the hell did water get in there. so i replaced the plugs with oem plugs, take the car on a test spin and it still breaks up.... anyone have this happened before or have any ideas."

-----------------

ATR Forum SG:

"in the last few days, my engine started to misfire while i was driving. so took it for a check up. Turns out that my 2-month old spark plugs ( plugs 1 & 3 from left side) are waterlogged, and damaged.

 

if you open your spark plug covers, you will see that plugs 1 & 3 are only covered with a normal rubber seal whereas plugs 2 & 4 are covered by the coil circuits as well.

 

As i park my car under the weather, the bonnet scoop opening is letting water into the engine bay directly onto the engine top. When you're driving, it's not a big problem cos the heat will evaporate the rain water b4 it gets into the spark plug. However if you park it under open air, if it rains for a few hours, water will get thru to the spark plugs."

-----------------

ATR Forum MY:

"Gee its bad. It happened to me also but luckily no problem mine was cyl 2. The plastic cover should prevent water from sipping in but it is ineffective cos the air scoop also allows rain water to flow down from the TMIC."

[Slayer666]

I think its a good idea to use car covers when we park our car in an open car park.

Protect the paintwork, the internal organs of a car. cos water can really travel all the way in man...

Arghh....y didnt i think of that. Wonder how much it'd cost?

Alot of ppl say, it'd attract attention and may be subjected to vandalism. If only there is one with a motion sensor(not that sensitive that it detects wind movements la)

[Watwheels]

Your season parking or parking coupon cannot be seen. If carpark attendent lazy or fedup, they'll just issue u a summon.

[Slayer666]

oh yah....parking issues. hmmm....

If only they have a cover with the front windscreen part transparent.

So at least those necessary tabs(road tax,parking) or :I Will be back in 10mins" signboard can be seen.

[Good-Carbuyer]

Last week, my car misfired in the morning. By afternoon, the car is choking and sounded like a VW Bettle/Harley/Heavily modded WRX ! Misfiring heavily.

 

Pop over the C&C satellite service center. They suggest plugs problem, but since they don't do diagnoistic, they suggest I pop over to their main service center instead.

 

By weekend, the car is quite undrivable and I got the plugs changed over the weekend, and had a shock of my life when I look into plug 1 hole !

 

This is on my Airtrek, and apparently water goes thru the air scoop and seep through the spark plug cover and settled in the spark plug bay.

 

I believe the water are all flooding around plug 1 and seep thru the rubber boot down the plug well.

 

From the look of it, it seems like it had been rusting for 3 to 6 months, which actually coincide with the extremely thunderstorm that we encounter since December till now.

 

However, C&C claimed that they've not encountered any other complains and suggest I leave the car with them to test by spraying some water on it (which I doubt will be equivalent to the thunderstorm that we get for hours). They do not have a solution for it right now :-(

 

I doubt I'm not the only one facing this problem (apparently, EVO and Airtrek both have this problem, based on the forums that I read). Other countries I guess is not as bad, but in Singapore, with the car park under the rain for HOURS with, say a cold engine, I believe water will seep thru the spark plug cover eventually.

 

Any thoughts on this ?

My not much better. 2 of the 4 spark plugs rusted and seized within the spark plug holders during 40k km servicing this morning. 2 of them broke during the attempts to extract them from within the hood.