my mom's 1990 Accord LX (130,000miles) did'nt start on monday, and i tried jumping it, did'nt work, then when i pulled any of the 4 spark plug wires out, it was dripping oil, and it was in the tubes where the plugs were also

so i did a search on here, and i must of scanned through about 40 or more posts, and i already knew to replace the 0-rings, and i did that part, .............but its funny how nobody mentioned at all on how they got the oil out of the sparkplug tubes???, and basically i am just being cautious and wanted to know how?

if i unscrew the plugs and take them out, then it looks like oil will drip into the hole that the plug went into, and go into where the cylinders and just wanted to know if its ok ? do i just take old plugs out and put new ones in, or do i suck the oil out somehow while plugs are still in??

any info would be cool, as this is all thats making me stall on finishing this and getting my mom's car running.

 

ur piston rings are bad. U can suck the oil out but that will not solve ur problem. U need to do a compression test and if it confirms that the rings are bad, u need to replace them.

 

take the plugs out and let the oil go in the cyls., clean the tubes with some brake clean. it will smoke for a few mins. when you start it up.

 

same problem on my accord (not as severe) all you gotta do to get the excess oil out is take a long flat head screwdriver (preferably thin) and take a paper towel, fold the paper towel so that its long and thin, then fold the bottom part of it so that you can use the screwdriver to push it down NEXT to the spark plug. This will allow the oil to "wick" into the paper towel...depending on how much oil there is will vary how long you leave it in, and how many times you need to repeat this. Good luck~!

 

lol...i used a turkey baster & a straw.
u may have bad valve cover rings $13 for a new set

 

actually, your idea is the best i heard IMO, thanks

 

one weird thing is that i went through probably 40 or more posts in a "search" about "oil on plugs" and everybody said just put new o-rings and gasket, but out of all the people, i only noticed one guy saying his car did'nt start also.

you see, thats my problem, its that the car does'nt start, ...............do you think it should start after getting the oil out and putting new plugs, o-rings, etc....?

or could it be something else? btw, there is no colored smoke coming out of exhaust or anything, actually this car has been maintained and not used daily, its my mom's and its in the garage a lot and even know it has 130,000miles, it has never had a starting problem in its lifetime, so whatever it is it should'nt be major.

 

Did you replace o-rings or did you replace the the round rubber seals that fit in the valve cover? If yoiu didn't replace the spark plug tube o-rings, your problem isn't fixed. You need to unbolt the rails that the rocker arms pivot on (a bunch of 12mm and a couple of 10mm bolts). You'll see 4 extremely hard o-rings that need replaced...

As far as the no start is concerned, check for spark, fuel pressure and compression. Chances are good you have no spark. Look back a couple of days and you should see at least 1 post on the subject (probably 4 or 5).

 

this is a huge deal for me too because this is the 2nd thread i have seen in 2 days that refers to bad piston rings and now i am getting nervous.......

spark pluigs 2 and 3 have oil on them > i changed the valve cover gasket and spark plug seals already once about 1 year ago but it seems to be happeneing again >> this time the oil is more than last time > could it just be a bad spark plug seal or is it bad rings >> is a compression test the only real way to know if its the piston rings???

 

If the oil is on the outside of the spark plugs (where the plug wires attach), it has nothing to do with oil rings or valve seals/guides. There are 4 o-rings you can't see by removing the valve cover (spark plug tube o-rings). My post above explains what you need to do. It's an easy repair, but I'm not sure if the aftermarket sells these particular o-rings. You will need to go to a dealer. It's $5 or $6 for all of them and there will be plenty in stock...

 

one thing i still don't know how to do, is how to "check for spark", i have heard people mention it, but how do i do this, do you just take the plug wire up into the air and have someone start the car?, or do i need some kind of insulated pliers to hold the wire with?

could you tell me how exactly to do this, cause i don't want to mess with ignition related stuff without knowing how to do it right, cause i don't want to get shocked, its something i need to know, especially for diagnosing a start problem.

 

You'll need a spark tester. Try NAPA or PepBoys. It should only cost $10-$15.

One end of the spark tester looks like a spark plug. The other end will be an alligator clip or something similar that will attach to a ground (there's several different styles available).

Here's a link to one style (the thing that looks like a spark plug is the tester).
http://www.msdignition.com/images/8998_big.jpg

I have that style pictured and another style that will screw in or out to test from 5KV to 40KV.

To test for spark you will need to unplug and test one spark wire at a time. Plug one end into the plug wire and ground the other end. If you crank the engine, you should see (and hear) the spark.

 

i did'nt know of that machine, and i will get it later so thanks for telling me, but really i was looking for the way you can test if there is spark, but without having to buy anything, cause a couple other people said you put a screwdriver into it and ground the other end of the screwdriver etc...., but any way i can do it for free is better, cause i already bought enough stuff.

 

Couple 'free' ways to check for spark.

Hold the end of the plug wire about 1/4" away from a good engine ground. This doesn't work for most Hondas because the connector is buried so far up in the rubber boot. I've done this, but 30kv can be lethal. If you've got a pacemaker or something like that, don't even think about it.

Plug any old spark plug into the wire, and rest it (clamp it?) on a good engine ground.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by crxaddikt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i did'nt know of that machine, and i will get it later so thanks for telling me, but really i was looking for the way you can test if there is spark, but without having to buy anything, cause a couple other people said you put a screwdriver into it and ground the other end of the screwdriver etc...., but any way i can do it for free is better, cause i already bought enough stuff.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Soak your hands in salty water and pull one plug wire at a time. You'll know pretty quick if you have spark or not

 

i did the screwdriver method, and ...................no spark, i rested on the shock tower bolt.

i took the ignition coil to autozone and they tested it, and said its good

battery is good also

checked fuses

put new plugs and i still have yet to put the new cap/rotor/plug wires on, but hopefully its one of those.

or it could be main relay

 

apparently the oil in the plug tubes was'nt the problem, cause i put new gaskets and got all oil out and put new plugs, and it still did'nt start, so then i did what i mentioned above, so thats where i'm at.

 

I guess main relay or ignition control module ("ignitor"). I don't have a circuit drawing for a '90, but one of the wires to the distributor is probably supposed to get +12v when you turn on the ignition.

Check the main relay; it's usually responsible for the following things:
1) supplies +12v to the distributor
2) supplies +12v to the injectors & EFI system
3) runs the fuel pump for 2 seconds, continues to run as long as the ECM sees a tachometer signal

If that's OK then I suppose the process of elimination gets to the ignitor. It's a little solid-state module inside the distributor. At least it is on newer cars; check your repair manual for '90.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by david90 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ur piston rings are bad. U can suck the oil out but that will not solve ur problem. U need to do a compression test and if it confirms that the rings are bad, u need to replace them.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Don't listen to these people . From what you said, theres nothing that should lead anyone to believe your piston rings are bad. If your rings were bad you would be burning oil like crazy and your exhaust would be blue. You just need to replace the 4 seals in the valve cover like others have said

 

&lt;--------------Troll slams his head against table

Do I need to take pictures of the o-rings??????????????? They're not in the valve cover. Oh, my head...

 

Easy, I dont want you to hurt yourslef. I wasn't talking about the o-rings, I said valve cover seals.

 

i listen to people, sure, but i still go by process of elimination, so everyones opinion helps, but i took the ignitor out and got it tested at autozone, first i called and some old guy said they don't test ignitors, but when i was up there, i asked this younger guy and he said "actually i can", and sure enough it was bad, but i have to get it at the dealer, cause the autozone one did'nt have the two mounting holes the way it was supposed to be, and it was $62 at autozone, so i am sure it will be a lot more at the dealer.

hopefully this is the problem, unless the autozone ******* did'nt test it right, i just hope he was positive it was bad.

at least the car has a good tuneup since i did all that trying to find what it was.

 

I just had the same problem. The mechanic did need to replace the spark plug wires, as they could not be cleaned effectively. As for how he cleaned the reamaining oil.....
i do not know. A chopstick and a thin towel to blot it up??

 

i put a thin straw on the end of a little rubber squeeze thing (kind of like a turkey baster), but i also put a flat head screwdriver down around the edges with a t-shirt, and i put q-tips with brakecleaner on it to clean inside the plug wires, but i got new wires anyway to be safe.

funny thing is i even tried a chopstick, but it seemed like a thick one, so i threw it away, i almost tried everything, i just wanted it clean