My Girlfriend just drove over to my house, she said her car was running rough and her C.E.L. light came on during the 3km trip.

I went outside to have a quick look-see.

1- Her car appears to be misfiring, lots of engine vibration.

2- There is a small accumulation of oil in one of the spark plug holes.

3- Her C.E.L. light is on. (Have not had the codes pulled yet. But i'm guessing she is burning oil)

I am guessing maybe a worn piston ring. What do you think??

PLEASE HELP, we have a big house move next week. I hope the car doesnt need some major heart surgery.

~jc

Where did you pull a worn piston ring from that ?

1) Get the codes pulled. Go to Autozone if you have one near. They do it for free.

2) Write down the code, post back here.

3) Then, folks can help you out.

FWIW, the vibration & misfiring sounds like a bad plug or plug wire. If there is no smoke from the car, then it is unlikely you are burning oil.

Cheers .......

Oil can come from valve guides too.

Don't jump to conclusions, get the code first.

Actually oil in the hole for the spark plug can only come from a leaky cam (valve) cover gasket.

I certainly hope raw oil is not passing the rings in such great amounts it popped the spark plug out and deposited itself there.

Oil can come from bad valve stem seals too.....

Ok, ok so I didnâ??t rationalize my idea about the piston ring. Heck, the plug was still in tight.

My first guess was plugs and or wires so I had my go at them and thatâ??s when I noticed the oil around the plug. I defiantly didnâ??t expect to see that.

Anyway, she has decided to take the car to a shop, and rightly so cause I wouldnâ??t know where to start.

I will post the out come along with the C.E.L. codes.

Thanks for the replies.
~jca

Originally posted by Bradness:

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Oil can come from bad valve stem seals too.....

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Not in the spark plug well!

That is "outside" the engine altogether.

The only way for oil to accumulate there is from a leaky cam cover gasket.

A leaky valve stem seal leaks top cylinder oil onto the base of the valve and into the combustion chamber. It is there burned off at startup resulting is a nice blue cloud out the tail pipe.
Extremely bad valve stem seals (or bad/missing seals) can leak under engine breaking and simple idling even.

Nothing could leak into the spark plug well without compromising the cylinder entirely (I.E. you would lose compression!) except for the afore mentioned gasket.