Maybe on the next oil change ?

 

so i see now that valve cover gaskets are for sale on ebay. Is our issue the actual valve cover itself or the gasket? heres a link:

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trk...All-Categories

 

mods please delete my noob post. I found more info about the real cause of the problem.

 

so I will be reaplcing my spark plugs on my 04 next weekend. I have 103K and this is the first plug change. Since I a mout of warranty, I would like to know what I should do if I find oil on one or more of my plugs? can I just clean the oil out and put the new plugs in? the fact that I have 103K and no problems such as misfiring is that an indication that I do not have this problem? Should I just leave the old plugs in there and let sleeping dies lie?

 

I didn't have any problems with misfires, and had oil in the #6 cylinder tube. I didn't even know about this problem until I changed my plugs and found it. The only "problem" I ever saw was there was a small puff of smoke after I restarted the car from the oil that dripped into the cylinder. When you pull the coil pack off you should be able to see oil on the it if there is some in there. Stuff some rags down there and soak up as much as you can before you pull the plug and that should reduce the amount of oil that gets in the cylinder.

Replacing the rocker cover wasn't too difficult as long as you have the manual.

Joe Mac

 

So if I clean as much oil as I can and install the new spark plugs then I shouldn't have any problems?

 

I would contest that you wouldn't have a problem either way, but probably not the best idea to dump oil in the combustion chamber... although people often that to test for compression leaks due to bad piston rings so maybe its a moot point.

 

I guess the dealers in Houston are all just abysmal. Took it in to Southwest for the airbag recall, they were rude and acted like they had NO time to discuss anything, and no Houston dealer does free diagnoses for any reason, $120ish flat rate, and rarely will they waive the fee if you have the problem repaired there. When I got my car back from Southwest, the radio, compass, wing mirrors, seat position, steering wheel position, a/c settings and vent positions were all changed and not put back to the way I left them. I can understand the seat and all, and I have the memory seats, but everything else need not have been touched for an airbag fix. I priced on Sewell's online part store the items listed on the invoice, total ~$500. Not sure if I can substitute parts for the Altima, but those run around $300 from NissanPartsConnection.com in El Cajon, CA.

 

Under warranty, just. I'm the original owner and the car was at 58k + miles, almost 6 years old, too. Would have been $800-900 job otherwise.

Found it chasing a random misfire code, plugs were looking pretty bad and 2/4/6 flooded with oil completely, 3 also.



I went in armed with the info from the OP which I didn't have to use, but they took their time deciding if it was covered. Poor bastards only get something like 3 hours or less warranty rate, they remove the entire plenum, etc. doing this work. I doubt that's a 1.5 hr in, 1.5 hr out job when you consider everything.

Can't figure out why my posts aren't here, I was pretty sure I posted back my results...maybe another thread. It was also related to stalling out on lift from speed off throttle...

Looked to me like the main problem is the seals were formed off-center, but I am far from an expert on the subject, idk if it's as obvious in my pics but this seal is sitting off center and they don't seem to move, they're formed into the cover that way. Bad QC I think.

 

You're talking an extremely small amount of oil. It's hard to avoid some, as soon as you pull the plug out far enough the oil goes right around it.

Never lost enough oil to be measurable.

 

Just read through all the posts (probably my 3rd or 4th time in the last couple yrs) and watched all the videos again. The time has come and my 6 yr powertrain warranty expires in Dec 24 so will need to do this. Been putting it off because it looks a bit intimidating and hope I won't break anything.

Do you need to take out the Negative post on the battery before doing all this? I thought you have to do that before you remove the MAF from the intake?

 

So I finally checked today. Bone dry on all 6 coil packs. I am not even sure if that is good or not. I didn't take the spark plugs out, I wonder if it's possible that coil packs are dry but the spark plugs may have oil on the bottom (which I would need to take out to check). I don't know how you guys did it in 1 hour. I must been in the garage for 5 hours. The drive side coil pack, 2, 4 and 6 was quite easy. The passenger side 1, 3, 5, is horrible. I couldn't figure out how to move those ignition wires away so I barely have enough room to check 1, 3, and 5. Had to do them one by one and of course drop bolts, that's another story and putting in wrong screws when I put everything back.

Since the coil packs are dry, I am not touching it again even though i have 2 more months of powertrain warranty. Just didn't want to go through the process again. I only have 38k miles so I will wait a while before I swap the spark plugs.

 

For everyone that had the oil pooling issue. Did you ALL see oil pooling before pulling out the spark plugs? Meaning there was oil pooling around the coil packs.

Did anyone have dry coil packs but when they took spark plugs out, there was oil on spark plugs? I am a bit paranoid now because my coil packs were all dried but I didn't pull the plugs out. It took me 5 hours and I don't want to ever do it again.

 

If you have dry coil packs you are fine...for now. I'm pretty sure all VQ's will have the problem eventually.

The spark plug tips may have a small amount of oil on them, but I really don't think that's anything to worry about unless it is a thick coating. All engines have a small amount of blow by that will collect on the plugs. You only run into problems when it is significant enough to start causing misfires.

 

I am glad to read that comment. So how does this oil pooling start? Does it start collecting on the coil pack/spark plug nut area and then eventually leak down to the spark plug thread/tip? Or does it start pooling on the spark plug thread/tip then gets over filled and come up on the spark plug nut and coil pack?