Green deposits on one spark plug

Ted Plain

So, my wife's car is not running smoothly. The ESR warning light has started to come on and it is very sluggish while taking off.

I did a bit of googling and came around to the idea that it could the spark plugs and/or ignition coil.

I bought a new set of spark plugs and set about swapping them out. I took off the coil and could immediately see a problem.

One of the rubber boots stayed stuck in the chamber and when I tried to pull it out it broke apart in pieces. The rubber is completely perished. I did manage to get most of it out with a pin-nose pliers, but then I could see that the spark plug has a prominent green deposit on it. I'm guessing this is copper corrosion. The chamber is also covered in green, unlike the other three which are like mirrors.

The spring is also wrecked. The springs have a metal cap on the end that sits into the coil unit, but with the problematic one this cap is gone and all there is left at the top is some material that looks like fibreglass or a fag butt! So obviously there was no impulse being transmitted there.

I had a look into the coil itself and can see a very large amount of white deposit inside of it. I poked around with a screwdriver and more and more kept falling out.

I just ordered a new set of boots and springs, but do you think that will be enough, or will In need to replace the whole coil unit? What could have caused it? The car is five years old.

How clean do i need to get the chamber to be? Would using a cotton bud with some solvent do the job? I guess it would not be good for some dirt to fall into the combustion area so what is th best way to remove the dirt before unscrewing the spark plug?

As I strongly suspect that there was no combustion at all happening in that cylinder are there are issues due to unburnt fuel, or will the engine management have shut the supply down completely?

Would appreciate any advice!

colm_mcm

It’s the ESR to do with traction control and ABS?

Best thing to do IMO is stick the new plugs in and make sure that contact is being made. If the car was misfiring you’d surely notice?

Ted Plain

Thanks for the suggestion!


I actually meant ESP, not ESR. The one with the car skidding. The cause of this often seems to be problems with spark plugs and the coil pack.


There is no sound or anything like that. It just feels sluggish and a bit jerky when accelerating.

smuggler.ie

Ted Plain wrote: »

So, my wife's car is not running smoothly. The ESR warning light has started to come on and it is very sluggish while taking off.
.............
One of the rubber boots stayed stuck in the chamber and when I tried to pull it out it broke apart in pieces. The rubber is completely perished. .................
................. What could have caused it? The car is five years old.

How clean do i need to get the chamber to be? Would using a cotton bud with some solvent do the job? I guess it would not be good for some dirt to fall into the combustion area so what is th best way to remove the dirt before unscrewing the spark plug?

As I strongly suspect that there was no combustion at all happening in that cylinder are there are issues due to unburnt fuel, or will the engine management have shut the supply down completely?

Would appreciate any advice!

Cracked rubber - moisture ingress = corrosion, possible misfire


Clean as much you can and blow all cr**p out with compressed air before removing plug

http://www.carbuyer.co.uk

........Electronic Stability Programme (ESP) is fitted to every new car on sale, along with most models sold over the past decade, and can also be referred to as Electronic Stability Control (ESC).........

not related to ignition problem

dieselbug

If a misfire is detected the ESP system can be automatically disabled because the system depends on reliable info from the engine ecu so there's probably no fault with the esp and the light is telling you the system has been disabled.