Hey everyone! Hope january is going easy on everyone :-) Well, we had a couple of warm days here in Ontario, Canada so I decided to change out my spark plugs as my car has rolled over 185 000 KM and the manual says change after about 166 000 KM. I went to the GM dealer to get some spark plugs but for my 2004 sunfire, they wanted 18 bucks a pop. Now, I don't know if that's normal for a spark plug but I was thinking around 6-10 per plug as my 1994 cavalier was only 10 dollars for a pack of 2! So i bought the aftermarket NGK ones instead and my engine ran fine after the throttle body clean, spark plug change and air filter change. I have noticed though, that this exhaust/gas smell comes through the vents when I let the car warm up or when I'm stopped at the light. Has anyone else experienced this? I did a search adn found that it could be a leaky injector... could that be the culprit? I find that unsual to happen right after a spark plug change. Could it prehaps be that I also used some anti-sieze compound? I also read that our engines don't need it but I had a bad experience on my 94 cavalier so I wont' repeat that by going without anti sieze. The coil pack didn't go down smoothly either so I'm wondering if my plugs are a little bit too long and that's causing the smell... the coil pack did screw down all the way though... oh boy, I hope I don't end up droppng 80 bucks on new plugs... that's crazy!
any input would be helpful! thank you in advance girls and guys!
First thought is the spark plugs have a different pitch thread and is letting the fumes go past the plugs, into the engine bay, then into your cabin.
I could be wrong of course, but since it is the plugs being the only change part of the equation and something other than the suggested plugs were used...
My wife's 2003 Ecotec 2.2 liter Sunfire:
* 2 1/4 inch in and dual 2 inch out muffler Trans Am muffler
* 2 1/4 piping to a very long 2 1/4 inch resonator
* 2 1/4 inch catalytic converter
* an AEM true cold air intake NOPI edition
* 8 gauge ground wire kit
* Toyz front strut brace
* Russell stainless steel brake lines all around.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, I figured out the issue several days ago :-). Turns out that I was a little nervous in tightening the spark plugs as to not strip the threads. I used a torque wreck to tighten up the spark plugs and voila! It worked! No more gas smell. It did a real number on the coil pack as there was a lot of carbon build up that I had to clean :-(. Oh well, at least my gas milage is back up and a noticable power increase!
Thank you all who have helped out in this situation! :-)
Mike85220 wrote:First thought is the spark plugs have a different pitch thread and is letting the fumes go past the plugs, into the engine bay, then into your cabin.
which would have been noticeable by the plugs cross threading the whole way. i would hope anyone who felt as much resistance as that would give when putting plugs in wouldnt think it was normal.
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