33 replies to this topic

[Sutol]

Unless you're noticing excessive oil usage, your photo shows typical SC breather crud.

[GaryK]

This issue still makes me nervous. At the moment, the rear clam and subframe are off, and the engine is nicely exposed. How much work/risk is involved in stripping down the engine to have a look? Note: I've never so much as changed a spark plug...

[fezzasus]

A lot.

 

The most I would recommend is taking the rocker cover off. This will let you inspect the timing chain tension and valve retaining collars, the latter of which I can say make a tapping noise before catastrophic failure.

[GaryK]

OK, cheers. I'll have a go at the rocker cover and see if there's anything obvious.

[GaryK]

Just been reading up and have a couple of questions: * Will I need a replacement gasket? Current one seems sound. *The last step in the EPC guide is 'reprogram volatile memory'. What does that involve?

[fezzasus]

No, you can reuse the existing gasket.

 

Volatile memory = reprogram radio. Although there's no reason to disconnect the battery for this.

[GaryK]

I took the rocker cover off today. It was pretty clear something's up just from the coil pack:

 

 

Inspecting where the spark plugs go, the left two are perfectly clean, the next one shows a little rust around the sparkplug, but the right one clearly has something wrong. The spark plug recess is caked with what looks like char/coke - black, dark... Any ideas?

 

 

Edited by GaryK, 14 February 2016 - 05:48 PM.

[fezzasus]

Water ingress. Clean up the contact points and you should be fine.

[oakmere]

With the tapping sound could it also be a loose plug allowing cylinder gasses to escape? I would be replacing the plugs and cleaning all contacts as fezzasus has surgested.

[Chris P Duck]

Try to clean as much of the crud as possible out of each well before removing the spark plug so it doesn't fall into the engine. A few squirts of WD or similar then a stiff brush to dislodge it then a section of washer jet hose taped into the smallest Hoover attachment you have while the Mrs isn't working to suck it out works well. The rubber boots pull off the coil pack and there's a "Spring" type affair in each which can be pushed out. Clean each coil pack contact and spring with some fine sandpaper or similar and some contact cleaner. Then try to fit some sort of water ingress shield to prevent re-occurrence.

Edited by Chris P Duck, 15 February 2016 - 12:41 PM.

[Sutol]

No. 1 that's not the one that cracks if you tighten the plug too much is it?

[GaryK]

That's the elephant in the room I guess  .

 

I've just tested them and #1 (the problem one) was the only one that would budge with a ratchet (I was maybe being a bit too careful). That could be because it was not tight enough. I'm keeping my fingers crossed... I'll clean up the recesses as above before taking them out.

 

I haven't noticed any coolant loss or anything like that.

[Bargi]

Corrosion on the coil packs and the spark plugs is common. It's just water coming through the mesh above the engine bay. Either get the turbo water ingress kit or Astra 2.2 engine cover. Just give them a good clean up and some dielectric grease

[FLD]

No. 1 that's not the one that cracks if you tighten the plug too much is it?

That's no 4 at the other end. Seen one or two of those and they were clearly full of coolant. This ones different.