Just coming home from work today my 51 reg Fiesta zetec se 1.25 engine magagement light came on flasing. As well as this the engine sounds like it is missfiring and is down on power.

On removal of plug caps to see which cylinder(s) it is missing on. I noticed the plughs where surrounded by engine oil. You cant see the nut part of the plugh you put a spanner on.

Also the engine sounds no different whichever leads are removed.

If anyone could give any advice it would be much appreciated,

James

The oil will cause the spark plug boot to swell and lead to a misfire. This will certainly hurt engine performance as well as a possible engine fire.

There is an O-ring that seals the spark plug well and keeps oil from leaking into it. As with any valve cover gasket, it will start to leak over time. Sometimes tightening the valve cover bolts will stop the leakage, but more often than not the valve cover gasket, and well seals, will need to be replaced.

Thanks for your reply, Im gona have a look in today. Do you reckon the plugs will have been knackered or reuseable?

Im not being tight i dont mind buying new ones, its just i have an assessment at college first thing tomorrow so getting it going for then is a necessity!!!

Thanks again for your advise,

James

The plugs should be ok with a good clean, just get a new seal and gasket set for the head and you should be ok.

Try giving the bolts a nip up first.

Got the oil mopped up, and cured the leak with the faithfull old loctite flange sealant that i always have in my box .

Problem was still no better and i diagnosed it down to being the coil, after an hour on the phone i finally found a scrapyard open sundays for a coil, so its now back up and runing (until the 2nd hand coil packs up!)

Thanks,

James

Its possible that the oil on the plugs was causing a short and damaged the coil pack in the process. Glad its running OK now.