I will post pics in the morning. My wife normally drives the car. She said it needed plugs due to a slight miss. I kinda chuckled (due to having 15,000 miles and went and bought new plugs for it. Well I pulled all the plugs and about s*** myself when I pulled the two plugs on passenger rear. Carbon buildup so bad on one that it closed the gap on one and nearly On the other. I couldn't believe it. The car had a tick since we bought it before I changed the plugs from that side rear and is now gone with plug change which tells me it was carbon knock. Also I searched the tick before on the forum and thought it was due to noisy injectors so never worried about it.

Has anyone experienced this?

Bad gas?
No good plug from factory?
It is definitely carbon buildup.

Also while changing the plugs I noticed oil on the lower plastic engine cover. There is no oil on the valve covers. It was not leaking when I changed it last
because the was no oil on the pan. I 100% positive drain plug is tight.

Any help suggestions or comments would be great. I am going to keep an eye On those two plugs.

 

Were the 2 plugs from the same cylinder? It could be from a bad coil or a sticking valve. Are all the plugs fouled?

 

I've been using SHell V-Power and the plugs look great. Curious to see what fuel you are using.

 

Well we have been using quik trip. We are now going to change to shell. We have been using premium since we got it. Yes they were from the same cylinder. When we started the car with fresh plugs it has never ran so good.

 

This is the same plug. A slot on rear passenger cylinder. The plug in the B slot looked bad but not like this one. All of the rest of the plugs in the motor looked great.

 

I lightened and enlarged the picture a bit. Not brilliant but you get the picture.

 

Many things can cause this, but bad gas will definitely do this. Make sure you use quality premium gas.

 

I am hoping bad gas was most of it.

 

If 2 plugs from one cylinder were that bad and the other 10 plugs looked good I think it's more than bad gas.

 

That is oil fouled, not dark. its shiny and looks like it was not firing or just loading up with oil.. Could have gotten oily after it stopper firing. I would pull the wires and insert OLD plugs in the wires to see if they fired on top of the valve cover outside of the cyclinder. Woody

 

I agree, just dont want to believe it. I am going to do a compression test when i get time. I may even pull the valve cover and check the valve springs or see if i can find anything wrong. If not i will be keeping an eye on those plugs. I thought about getting a new coil and wires for that cylinder as well.

 

Is the car burning any oil?
If so it could be a ring problem or a valve stem leak.
Also a burnt valve is a possibility.

A pressure test on that cylinder should be done and compared to the others.

Fuel problems show up as grayish or tan colored deposits, likely in the form of whiskers. They would also be on all plugs.

 

I am not sure it was a little low on oil but it has an oil leak i will be looking at this weekend. Not sure where from yet found oil on the plastic lower cover when changing the plugs. It was not there last time i changed the oil. I love this car but it has been one thing after another since we bought it. With such low miles you wouldnt expect these problems. Still looks and smells like new. Hell the window sticker residue was still on the window when we bought it.

 

Throw in a bottle of Techron from Chevron along with Shell Vpower and replace the plugs of course. Good luck.

 

Where do you get the techron? I have never heard of it? New Autolite plugs are in.

 

I am not trying to pi$$ you off, especially after all the issues you have been having, but this is exactly why I would not buy an ultra low mileage car - worried it would have been sitting for far too long. 2005 with 15K miles could be a dream car, or your worst enemy, all depends who had it those years, typically someone that takes amazing care of a car and puts almost no miles on it keeps it though....

 

My 05 has 22,245 and is driven, lightly. Gas does not cause carbon , lack of the PROPER amount of air does. High test has knock modifiers that REGULAR does not have, same same overall. Gas stations try to add all sort of stuff, newest is nitrogen, before that they were addding oxygen.....ho hum.
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I surmise that the plug pair were not firing and loading up the plugs. As I said start the car with two plugs on the valve cover and see how they seem to fire( yes you have plugs in the cyclinder while you do this and yes they are not "connected" during this test. Atmospheric pressure is no test but will say if there are firing signals are sent to the coil pac.
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If the plugs fireon the valve cover, remove the coil pac and swap to the other side of the engine and see how the plugs READ after 500 miles to see if the pack or cyclinder have the problem. Cheers, Woody
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BTW did a/c work for the inventor of the coil pack design - electromotive - what a dickk, glad he's gone. If the plugs dont fire normally oil will build in the cyclinder and coat the interior/plugs.

 

Any auto parts store should have the Chevron with Techron, buy the larger bottle.

 

Well a couple thousand miles after the last plug change, i pulled the plugs from the same cylinder and show signs of what they looked like before. I am going to replace the two plugs, and coil pack. I am going to run fuel injector cleaner through it as well. If this does not cure the problem i will be looking at replacing the injector. Then the valve cover is coming off to replace the lifters and possibly the valve guides/seals. Something is going on in that cylinder. Not sure what yet. Going to start working on in this friday. Also the car has developed a tick it sounds like right above that cylinder. This is why i may replace the lifters. I cant belive with 17,000 miles i am dealing with these issues.

 

I AGREE