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I'm pretty sure the tech forgot to tighten these. #2 (the burnt one) seemed loser than the rest. And all could be removed by hand especially #2.. (like two finger remove). Probably worked it's way out and ....hmmm... stopped making a ground which is the ground electrode to not touch the block .... slightly. (the grounding of the plug is the block / threads). This resulted in the burnt plug. Usually this damage is fuel, wrong A/F, high EGT, but you would see it on all plugs. This simply could of been a bad plug too. I looked down the tube / hole and all looked fine. I should of put the scope down to look at the piston, maybe tomorrow when I change them. Now I can't help but wonder what else I should check....
Yes, having a look inside the cylinder might be informative.
It creeps me out a little to think about it, as I didn't imagine the combustion chamber was designed to be lubricated by a lump of detached electrode.
Well it's fixed. Run great now. But god dam...... I shouldn't of rushed this job, in the cold (1C) ...... fack my life. I broke one of the coil connectors..
Newbie mistakes, and should of used a pick from the underside to do this vs. this muck up... UG.
Well sweeetness! Thank you!! Love this forum. I already had a friend get a replacement connector for me, I hope the de-pinning isn't too difficult on these. Anyone ever do them?
And to update anyone who reads this and has the same issue, the car runs great now! haha go figure Not sure if spark plugs coming loose in these cars is a thing or the last tech simply forgot to tighten them as I could remove them by hand. But they won't have a ground and will burn up like so.
And anyone who has the issue of not being able to get the coil plugs off, simply use a pick or paper clip to get under it from the coil side and it will come off super easy (youtube videos are out there). Hope this thread helps others, I did see previous threads with the same issue but they had no answer.
& thanks to everyone else for the help. Much appreciated!
I just changed the spark plugs by myself for my A4 couple weeks ago for the 80k service. Supposedly the dealer changed them at 40k service more than 3 years ago. The old plugs were all not tight at all. Don’t need force to wrench them off although I don’t recall I tried with just hand. Certainly gave me the feeling of kind loose there so I used couple more N.m when installing the new ones. Was thinking to check back after a few hundred miles later.
I just changed the spark plugs by myself for my A4 couple weeks ago for the 80k service. Supposedly the dealer changed them at 40k service more than 3 years ago. The old plugs were all not tight at all. Don’t need force to wrench them off although I don’t recall I tried with just hand. Certainly gave me the feeling of kind loose there so I used couple more N.m when installing the new ones. Was thinking to check back after a few hundred miles later.
If you changed the plugs when the car was cold you should find them a bit loser than you would expect. Once the car warms up they get plenty tight due to thermal expansion of the head and the plugs.
I am surprised that you did not get any misfire codes. I bet you had a lot of misfires in the cylinder with that damaged plug.
Let’s hope you do not find any damage from the missing ground electrode. If you are lucky it just eroded away with time and there were no loose large parts in the cylinder rattling around and scratching the walls.
Yep, no issues with the cylinder or piston. The plug just burnt away over time due to not having a ground. Car runs great now. I'm going to re-check them this weekend too.
3 days ago I checked the new plugs and fixed the connector I broke (was easy to de-pin these). Made sure to tighten the plugs a extra bit. And the car was super happy.
But... on the way home from work today (3 days later) the engine developed a ticking sound and died on me. All happened very quick, the first symptom was the car rpms dropped and stalled. I started it and got to a parking lot and then heard ticking. Now has a loud ticking from the engine which sounds like a spun bearing. It's impossible it ran out of oil (was done 2 months ago by Audi). Had the car towed to a shop, engine ticking near the bottom does not sound good. And shop can't even look at it for 2 weeks.
04-11-2023, 05:13 AM
Not sure if spark plugs coming loose in these cars is a thing or the last tech simply forgot to tighten them as I could remove them by hand. But they won't have a ground and will burn up like so.
