So decided to tackle this as my 2017 has about 140k miles on it. Bought it with 108k on the clock from Carmax so don’t have a great folder of documented service.
Never had any trouble code or misfires. I thought I was losing coolant. But I think it was checking it with engines at various levels of warmth and on unlevel ground. I am being more cognizant about cold engine on level ground when I check.
So couple things I learned
Take the air box out completely. The base too. It’s only three screws and it made the dreaded #8 not bad at all. I probably had more trouble with 2 and 4. And I didn’t need a magic combination of sockets and extensions.
Remove the 3 bolts that hold the heater coolant hoses and it won’t be a problem.
Do a couple of the easy ones first so you get a feel for the process.
Careful of the rubber washer that go between the coil and the engine. Dropping one will be an unnecessary headache.
If you use a universal joint socket make sure your don’t have screws at the joints….imagine my panic when half way thru the job my jointed socket just falls apart and I realize a hex screw was holding it together. And I can’t find the screw. (Peered in every spark plug well and took picture with iPhone for the ones I couldn’t see) but it was small enough to go in the hole if it did fall in. Eventually found the screw on the ground at the end….
I have an old school craftsman that is just a peg but a newer craftman set I got as a gift had hex screws holding it together!!!
I did compression test and held down accelerator and started the car and still got a whiff of gas so I pulled the fuel pump relay fuse and did it that way. Hitting the start button with the brake pressed gives you 6 cranks each time.
SO…..
I pull #2 to find a films of dried mud on the porcelain side and a very rusty washer. The rest of the spark plug looks good. For all 8 the gaps did check out at 0.04
Find the same on cylinder #1 dried mud and rusty washer. Both of these are pretty tough to get out but not crazy.
So I remove and then use some carb cleaner to clean the spark plug wells. And I rub out some rusty gunk from the base of both with a shop towel and a socket extension. All others are pristine.
Now on a side note when I first bought the car I took it up to big bear and drive thru some medium deep mud holes at a good speed for fun. So my engine got pretty soaked in some muddy water. But haven’t done anything similar since then.
So I bought a cheapy compression test off Amazon. The results are below on the picture. Now mind you this was on a stone cold engine. Didn’t realize usually you do it while warm.
Worried about cylinder 1 and 2. I bit of oil seemed to help on #2. Don’t know how water got in except my muddy puddle shenanigans.
I never get white smoke on start up. Never get smell of burning coolant. I checked the valley best I could while engine cover was off and didn’t find any evidence of dried coolant.
Plus weird how Bank 2 are all about 10psi higher then Bank 1.
Engine runs great and no codes ever.
I did notice the rubber washers are a weird double sided affair with what looks like a small drain hole. I oriented those downward for each coil. But seemed like hydrodynamics for the front 2 to be the only ones that maybe got the rubber pushed back and let water in.
Next steps?
Leak down test?
Professional shop?
Car fires up and no problems. I think my MPG is better too. But too early to say for sure.
Wondering if rust or something is preventing the compression tester to get a tight seal. You hand tighten by twisting a rubber hose…
Not sure I trust this cheap tester but it does seem consistent so even if the actual values might be off the relative difference may be accurate.
Never had any trouble code or misfires. I thought I was losing coolant. But I think it was checking it with engines at various levels of warmth and on unlevel ground. I am being more cognizant about cold engine on level ground when I check.
So couple things I learned
Take the air box out completely. The base too. It’s only three screws and it made the dreaded #8 not bad at all. I probably had more trouble with 2 and 4. And I didn’t need a magic combination of sockets and extensions.
Remove the 3 bolts that hold the heater coolant hoses and it won’t be a problem.
Do a couple of the easy ones first so you get a feel for the process.
Careful of the rubber washer that go between the coil and the engine. Dropping one will be an unnecessary headache.
If you use a universal joint socket make sure your don’t have screws at the joints….imagine my panic when half way thru the job my jointed socket just falls apart and I realize a hex screw was holding it together. And I can’t find the screw. (Peered in every spark plug well and took picture with iPhone for the ones I couldn’t see) but it was small enough to go in the hole if it did fall in. Eventually found the screw on the ground at the end….
I have an old school craftsman that is just a peg but a newer craftman set I got as a gift had hex screws holding it together!!!
I did compression test and held down accelerator and started the car and still got a whiff of gas so I pulled the fuel pump relay fuse and did it that way. Hitting the start button with the brake pressed gives you 6 cranks each time.
SO…..
I pull #2 to find a films of dried mud on the porcelain side and a very rusty washer. The rest of the spark plug looks good. For all 8 the gaps did check out at 0.04
Find the same on cylinder #1 dried mud and rusty washer. Both of these are pretty tough to get out but not crazy.
So I remove and then use some carb cleaner to clean the spark plug wells. And I rub out some rusty gunk from the base of both with a shop towel and a socket extension. All others are pristine.
Now on a side note when I first bought the car I took it up to big bear and drive thru some medium deep mud holes at a good speed for fun. So my engine got pretty soaked in some muddy water. But haven’t done anything similar since then.
So I bought a cheapy compression test off Amazon. The results are below on the picture. Now mind you this was on a stone cold engine. Didn’t realize usually you do it while warm.
Worried about cylinder 1 and 2. I bit of oil seemed to help on #2. Don’t know how water got in except my muddy puddle shenanigans.
I never get white smoke on start up. Never get smell of burning coolant. I checked the valley best I could while engine cover was off and didn’t find any evidence of dried coolant.
Plus weird how Bank 2 are all about 10psi higher then Bank 1.
Engine runs great and no codes ever.
I did notice the rubber washers are a weird double sided affair with what looks like a small drain hole. I oriented those downward for each coil. But seemed like hydrodynamics for the front 2 to be the only ones that maybe got the rubber pushed back and let water in.
Next steps?
Leak down test?
Professional shop?
Car fires up and no problems. I think my MPG is better too. But too early to say for sure.
Wondering if rust or something is preventing the compression tester to get a tight seal. You hand tighten by twisting a rubber hose…
Not sure I trust this cheap tester but it does seem consistent so even if the actual values might be off the relative difference may be accurate.
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