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Oil in spark plugs!


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Hi there,

I wonder if you can help me. I have a VW Lupo 1.0 - 83k miles.

Recently i noticed it running a bit rough and how i would describe "bunny hopping" up the road almost. Some periods worse than others. I only changed the plugs in November 2016 so I thought their only 2 years old - could be something beyond my skills, so i asked my mate who works at an MOT station to take a look.

He has said today he replaced all of the plugs and ignition leads but the plugs were soaked in oil and in bad condition. He said probably best to get shot of the car as engine likely to be on it's way out.

Now what I want to know is, should I try changing the rocker cover first? Should I wait a few days and remove spark plugs to check condition of them?

Car seems to be running fine now though. Any advise is appreciated.

Jed

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It's probably sucking in breather fumes, but could be the piston rings, worn valve guides, head gasket, bunged up throttle valve, all of the above...

Try diverting the breather pipe down to the road and blocking off the flange that sucks all the gunk into the engine. Then take it on a good motorway run to clean things out. When's the last time you changed the air filter?

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Just now, mk2 said:

It's probably sucking in breather fumes, but could be the piston rings, worn valve guides, head gasket, bunged up throttle valve, all of the above...

Try diverting the breather pipe down to the road and blocking off the flange that sucks all the gunk into the engine. Then take it on a good motorway run to clean things out. When's the last time you changed the air filter?

Had a service in Febuary 18 which was air filter, fuel filter, oil and filter change, coolant change.

Sorry i'm not very good with cars, can only do a service and sometimes some brake pads lol! Breather pipe is already aimed down to the road I believe. Just gone out and taken a photo of this to show you + spark plugs, hopefully they are attached to this post.

How do i block off flange? Is that the part on the exhaust?

 

Breather.jpg

Plugs.jpg

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The breather pipe you refer to being aimed down at the road is in fact the air intake, which is fine to be as it is. 

The one Mk2 is referring to lives underneath the plastic airbox, roughly where the dipstick is. It's a push fitting and is easy enough to simply remove from the airbox. 

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Ok so update is I think oil was spilled when filling it up as I've checked spark plugs again after cleaning and almost no oil on them now. However quite concerned my plugs are almost black after replacing around 4 days ago? Is this normal? Or does this signal a problem?

IMG_20181208_114815.jpg

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Unless it is weeping out of the cam cover I wouldn't worry about it.

Go find a 16v lupo with oil in the spark plugs, then you will see what a problem looks like. You

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 12/9/2018 at 10:20 AM, Rich said:

Unless it is weeping out of the cam cover I wouldn't worry about it.

Go find a 16v lupo with oil in the spark plugs, then you will see what a problem looks like. You

Hi Rich.

Checked em again today after this time and no more oil in plugs thank god.

However, the plugs are literally black all on the ends etc now, attached is a pic, do you know how I can go about investigating this? Could the spilling of the oil caused this?IMG_20190107_155730.thumb.jpg.1f7a6dc5f2066c12f58124542ae84827.jpg

IMG_20190107_155727.jpg

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It might also be worth noting that I have some air pipes on my car that have been bodged with duct tape a friend did years ago when car was running odd. Could this be causing car to be running too rich?

Does anyone know the names of these two pipes? One connects to the throttle valve and the other has a two way head at the end of it.

Any help is appreciated, thanks guys.

image.jpg

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Black is carbon and that is fuel.

Whole different issue.

Those two pipes don't have to be official VW, they just have to be pipes which seal, they would cause a crap idle and air leaks but not necessarily overfuelling.

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3 minutes ago, Rich said:

Black is carbon and that is fuel.

Whole different issue.

Those two pipes don't have to be official VW, they just have to be pipes which seal, they would cause a crap idle and air leaks but not necessarily overfuelling.

Thankyou so much for replying. I don't have a whole lot of experience with cars as you can tell. Spoke to car parts store and they didn't know what pipes I was describing so I'm gonna take em off and take them down to the store tomorrow and see how much it is to replace them. The idle does seem to be fine at the moment.

Where would you start with this issue? Replace these pipes and replace the plugs and go from there? A mate said it might need a really good run?

Thanks again.

Edited by JedB
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Black and dry is it running rich. Could be be too much fuel or not enough air, make sure air filter is clean or new for starters. Could be from faulty temp sensor so it runs a rich map thinking engine is cold. Get fault codes read.

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31 minutes ago, Sausage said:

Black and dry is it running rich. Could be be too much fuel or not enough air, make sure air filter is clean or new for starters. Could be from faulty temp sensor so it runs a rich map thinking engine is cold. Get fault codes read.

Thankyou for your reply. No EML light on. Still worth getting it read? Funny you mention that as I replaced engine temperature sensor about 2years ago, just got a cheap one from euro car parts - suspicious lifetime alot of their stuff. This could be the answer.

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7 minutes ago, Rich said:

Buy cheap, buy twice. (I still use the ecp temp cheapies)

Replace! Rubber hose is cheap.

I will replace these hoses that are bodged. Should I replace the temp sensor with one from TPS at same time and do plugs as well and go from there?

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