Water In Plug Ports Issue, With Pictures

[mr vimto]

Thought I would report back on current situation.

It appears to be sorted. I mentioned that teh passenger side washer was leaking with test 1 and 2. After significant amounts of rain, there is no water under the bonnet. I've also tested using washers and still no water.

After my previous post I removed the washer jet and added a little more silicine grease compared to before - particularly to the nozzle.

Seems to have done the trick. I will keep checking regularly to make sure the seal is still sound.

No water in the spark plug area.

Before I knew it had worked I was considering options I could try to make a better connection between the nozzle of the washer jet and the connector that attaches it to the rubber hose.

One that came to mind were:

1) thread tape/PTFE tape round the nozzle

2) a new connector + silicone grease.

The problem with 2 would have been removing the connector from the hose.

Anyway - these are options that might come in handy if necessary - hopefully won't come to that - but might help others who are still struggling.

Thanks once again for the advice on this thread - especially Catch. Saved alot of faffing around, time and money.

This thread appears to be the most informative on the problem out there.

Cheers,

Mr. Vimto

[catch]

Thanks Mr Vimto,

but that to me is what the web is all about....... helping out others, and in turn being helped by others

If only the world could be run on the same basis

[Morleyst]

Wow so glad I found this forum and thread regarding the water ingress. I've been tearing my hair trying to find a way to stop the water leaking in through the washer jets. I'd read on another forum that they were the sole cause of the water leak but just couldn't find a way to stop it.

Anyway just ordered a tube of Silicone Grease off amazon (£4.20) and as mentioned above am gonna liberally apply it to the original washers in the hope it resolves the leak. Worst case I'll order the revised washers and follow Catch's instructions

Catch....Mr Vimto you've both been a massive help. Many thanks.

Will post results

[reprised]

Wow so glad I found this forum and thread regarding the water ingress. I've been tearing my hair trying to find a way to stop the water leaking in through the washer jets. I'd read on another forum that they were the sole cause of the water leak but just couldn't find a way to stop it.

Anyway just ordered a tube of Silicone Grease off Amazon (£4.20) and as mentioned above am gonna liberally apply it to the original washers in the hope it resolves the leak. Worst case I'll order the revised washers and follow Catch's instructions

Catch....Mr Vimto you've both been a massive help. Many thanks.

Will post results

I bought some carlube silicone grease off eBay and found it to be too watery - it just melted and disappeared. In the end I bought some high temp clear silicone sealant from Halfords and applied it on both sides of the jet gasket and squeezed a load more underneath the bonnet. It's been a month or so and haven't had any more washer fluid or rain coming through either washer jet (fingers crossed).

[Morleyst]

Well its been two full days since I applied Catch's fix to my car and so far so good, no leaks (not a drop) under the bonnet.

I used the tampon method for removing the water, a bit unauthordox but it worked none the less. I then dried the ports out with our lasses hair dryer as instructed (thats what I told her). I removed the washer from the bonnet and gave them a good clean and dry and cleaned the area around the hole in the bonnet. Once everything was dry and clean I applied a good blathering of the silicone grease to both washers jets and replaced them in the bonnet. As Catch descibed I also applied a good spread to the pipe connectors behind the washers then reconnected everything back up.

I did this early on Saturday morning, and its now monday and we've had rain almost constantly since then and not a drop has got through onto the engine block or the battery terminals.

The guy in the local hardware store looked at me daft when I asked for silicone grease. Took me about 20mins of telling him no to all sorts of different types of silicone based products before he rang the owner of the store and he directed him to a little cupboard at the back of the store and hey presto there was silicone grease.

The only problem I had was once everything was connected back up I went for a quick drive just to check and the car seemed to drive like it was running out of petrol, very jerky and splutery. I could only assume it was the HT leads and removed each individual one and reseated at both ends. Problem solved. I've since done 80miles and not a moment of bother

The only other thing Im thinking now is to change the spark plugs for new as they have been sat with that orange rusty water ontop of them for godknows how long.

Thanks again Catch for the precise instructions. You've saved me and probably a few other a lot of time and money

[Shiplu]

I have same problem with my Focus MK2 1.6

I had to take off rocker cover, then strip off all rust and painted with Engine Paint to prevent further rusting.

Also replaced the rocker cover gasket. BTW, when I took off rocker cover, few middle bolts snapped off because of rust. But its fine without these bolts as long as you have new gasket.

Also created a DIY engine cover from fire resistant plastic as water leaks from windscreen washer jet goes directly to spark plug hole.

See attached files

[catch]

Thanks again Catch for the precise instructions. You've saved me and probably a few other a lot of time and money

Glad to be of assistance mate, mines still dry as snuff..............it sure is marvellous stuff that silicone grease :)

[ferretfloozy]

mine also suffered with the washer jet issue ..read on here about the silacone grease and touch wood ive not had any problems since

[Shiplu]

I have just replaced my washer Jet with Ford Focus MK4 Mist / Spray type heated washer Jets from eBay as they are really cheap aroun £3 each.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-Ford-Focus-Mk4-2011-Onwards-Heated-Front-Washer-Jet-Spray-Type-x1-/220849176475?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item336ba2ff9b

They have a special rubber gasket that stops water leak, and they are really cool as these sprays water as mist into whole windscreen and saves a lot of screenwash.

Definitely worth upgrading. These are for MK4 Focus but fits really well in MK2 and MK3 as they are exactly same size etc.

[mr vimto]

I have just replaced my washer Jet with Ford Focus MK4 Mist / Spray type heated washer Jets from eBay as they are really cheap aroun £3 each.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-Ford-Focus-Mk4-2011-Onwards-Heated-Front-Washer-Jet-Spray-Type-x1-/220849176475?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item336ba2ff9b

They have a special rubber gasket that stops water leak, and they are really cool as these sprays water as mist into whole windscreen and saves a lot of screenwash.

Definitely worth upgrading. These are for MK4 Focus but fits really well in MK2 and MK3 as they are exactly same size etc.

Those look great.

I'm guessing you could fit them without connecting them up to enable heating? In other words, just to benefit from the mist spray and better seal with the bonnet?

I'm tempted - my only reservation is that now I've got a watertight seal I don't want to faff about with it too much.

[Stoney871]

If you can only get the heated nozzle but haven't got the wiring to connect them just cut the wires off with pliers.

I was given a set of heated ones by a friend but didn't have the connections for them so cut them off, fitted fine and no leaks at all.

The new seals that comes with them have to be better than leaving on the older ones.

[Petar]

Hi guys, I've posted a quick guide to resolving this problem in a way that is not very expensive but works perfectly for keeping water out of your spark plugs. :) It's in the guides section: Solution to water in plug ports

[Phil S]

Hi all - new to the forum

Read all these posts with great interest. I have had a little amount of water sometimes in the spark plug plastic well. I usually just dry it up with a bit of tissue.

What I can't see though is how it could possibly get down to the spark plugs? There is a collar around every plug hole and that is fitted with the rubber lead bung.

I see that in some of the above pictures you refer to a bung between plugs 2 and 3. I haven't got that bung on my engine. What is your model with this bung? - mine is the Ti VCT 115 engine.

I never been able to properly tell whether the water is rainwater coming through the seal OR if it is washer water coming from the pipe connector. Suppose it's better to seal both.

Are the Mk4 washers from eBay spoken about above a better fit and seal then? Might think about a pair of them.

Thanks in advance for any reply.

[catch]

Two Year Update:

my original fix is proving to be the solution.............remember silicone "GREASE" is what you need

Now taking the view..............better late than never :)

If the question in the post prior to this one was directed towards me. Unlike that poster I have the 100PS engined Mk2 Focus

[artscot79]

mines held up to the torrential downpours as well 1 year on using marine sealant not a drip

[Ff06]

I am having the same problem, have just put my car in for a service and they phoned to say they couldn't do it etc as water in the plug ports etc. he showed me and it looked bad, I have read all your comments but have zero car knowledge whatsoever but learning fast- I want to get the water out / clean it out etc but unless I am missing something the holes are very small- am I right in thinking that the only way is to suck it out. I should only be able to see into the little holes after taking the rubber caps off? I am sorry I appreciate you guys are all a lot more knowledgeable than me but just really worried that is is going to be a bigger problem as the guy said that basically only 2 out of 10 ford cars with this problem won't have their sparks plugs broken off when trying to get them out and I don't know how long the water has been there as it hasn't been serviced in a couple of years.

Thank you

[artscot79]

a ford dealer should still be able to do the service tissue will soak up most of the water then spray wd40 in so you have a little pool of wd40 and leave that for at least an hour then soak that up the plugs should come out easily enough but nothings gauranteed if ford say they wont do it just tell them it was fords design fault that caused it so its there problem then phone ford customer service uk its a well known fault with a technical service bulletin sent to all dealers about it

[Fanta]

I thought I'd share my recent experience...

I've owned my 2002 Fiesta for 2.5 years and have only seen the spark plug bay a few times, but on those few occasions I've wondered why it's rusty with no signs of water. Every time I've looked, I've never seen water.

So the car started miss-firing, which is odd considering the plugs were only two years old. You can't see the plugs that well with the rocker cover on, but the leads were ok so I just bought some new plugs.

The first plug removed was really rusty...

and the second plug snapped! Yes, I did a lot of swearing and thought "this is going to be expensive!"

A non'Ford garage said they couldn't look at it for a few days because of the Easter weekend, but told me to soak the plugs in WD-40.

There was a lot of rusty bits around the plugs so I hoovered around the plugs before spraying. Surprisingly the ceramic part of the broken plug hoovered up leaving only the Shell to remove.

Whilst researching on how to deal with broken spark plugs I found the most common way was to drill the centre of the plug then use an 'Easy Out' or 'Screw/Bolt Extractor' (same thing, different name).

Now that the centre part of the plug was removed it didn't need drilling, so I thought I'd potentially save my self the expensive bill and try an Easy Out, for the price of £6 from amazon.

The Easy Out came in a pack of five different sizes and I had to use the largest, which was a perfect fit. The plug case took a lot of force to remove and I thought I was going to cause further damage, but once the extractor had bitten the plug Shell broke free with no signs of damage.

obviously water was causing this, but I didn't know how. The internet said it's either the core plugs or washer jets, which I found hard to believe. I poured some water over the jet and yes a few drops did run though on the the air box where it would eventually end up on the rocker cover. I didn't think this was plausible and I couldn't see how a slow drip would fill such a large area.

I waited to see what would happen when it rained and sure enough within just two hours there was a surprisingly large puddle on the rocker cover. So with a few days of constant rain and no use of the car, the spark plug bay would probably be flooded and take some time for the water to evaporate.

So, all this simply because there was no rubber seal around the washer jets. I didn't bother trying to seal them myself when new jets only cost £6.

I also bought the new 'mist' type jets (part No.1708796) that are on the Focus - they work well, but nothing to shout about in my opinion. The drivers side jet partially sprays on the low non-wiping area and runs across to the drivers door window, which annoys me slightly.

So a potentially very expensive repair fixed for £12! Not bad.

[Stoney871]

And all because Ford won't a/ fit engine covers on all cars and b/ can't be bothered to use decent seals on the washer nozzles.

[ferretfloozy]

and c/ admit that there is a problem .

[Turvey]

I have same problem with my Focus MK2 1.6

I had to take off rocker cover, then strip off all rust and painted with Engine Paint to prevent further rusting.

Also replaced the rocker cover gasket. BTW, when I took off rocker cover, few middle bolts snapped off because of rust. But its fine without these bolts as long as you have new gasket.

Also created a DIY engine cover from fire resistant plastic as water leaks from windscreen washer jet goes directly to spark plug hole.

See attached files

Sorry to bump this thread but it saves starting a new one ;)

Car started mis-firing the last couple of days and after a wee bit of investigation found water in the spark-plug ports(or whatever the correct term is)

Sucked the water out with a wet/dry vacuum and sprayed with WD40.

Now my question is, how do you go about cleaning the area as illustrated? Is it a case of taping and covering up the rockers obviously leaving the plugs in and attacking the area with small wire-brushes and emery paper and removing dust etc with a hoover? Or is there an faster/easier way?

I will be trying to get some of the silicone grease as mentioned as well ;)

[Nathan_M]

Mine did that, when It came to service I said change the plugs, had a phone call after the mot was done before the service to be told water was dripping out of the middle of the engine, it turned out that when it got hot the water bubbled up and over the edge of the cover and down over the bell housing straight onto the testers head, anyway I then realised that that was the reason it smelt warm after driving a short way it was the water in the plug Wells I brought a new set of the washer jets it appears to work with light ish rain but it pummeled down the other day and the smell returned for 1 journey before he juice evaporated again, although I must say at no point during the self drowning did the zetec se miss a beat, I wouldn't have found out at all if I hadn't changed the plugs.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Ford OC mobile app

[artscot79]

the only cure and i know as i did it 2 years ago now with not a drip is as i explained and silicone the washer jets to the body the water will cause the leads and coil pack to break down quickly meaning constatnt replacement the pass side also drips on top of the ecu cover which you dont want either

[murphee7]

Had another go at applying sealant to the underside of the bonnet around the washers. This time because it was earlier in the day [instead of late afternoon] I could see what I was doing.

Just need a good downpour now to see how it stands up to it, but I'm quietly confident.

there is another fix somewhere on this site that involves a plastic cover from a volvo v50 1.6l 05/06 ,covering ht leads and spark plug ports casting water off head of engine,but doesnt fix problem on nearside

[catch]

there is another fix somewhere on this site that involves a plastic cover from a volvo v50 1.6l 05/06 ,covering ht leads and spark plug ports casting water off head of engine,but doesnt fix problem on nearside

Jeez give me strength, if you had taken the time to read at least part way down page two of this four page thread [post 19] You would realise this problem on the early build Mk2 Focus has been solved. I solved it, I posted pictures proving it for the benefit of others who may be searching for a solution to the problem.

So why on earth do you quote one of my pre fix solutions posts, then go on to suggest I try fitting an engine cover from a Volvo, but then point out it is not really a solution!

Now if I had a hole in my roof letting in water, I wouldn't go about fixing it by building another roof under the leaking one. No I'd find were the water was getting in and FIX THAT.

I started that thread on a realtime basis, noting all the attempted fixes, and the failures, all accompanied with photos. I then solved the problem, it's simple. I posted it so that others with this early build design fault can apply my fix without all the trial and error I undertook.

It's now over three years down the road from applying that simple fix > Silicon Grease < and the plug ports are still bone dry.

The moral of this rant is.................If you have the attention span of a gold fish, and cannot be bothered to read a thread long enough to find the solution to the problem. If that is the case, best not to commit to a post evidence of that fact.

Anyway that said, welcome to the forum....Me I'm going back to my slumbers