Cylinder 1 misfire CEL Liquid in the Cynlinder...

[daonly1around]

So went to change the spark plugs after I received a PO301 Code.

Took out the spark plug on Cylinder 1 and Full of liquid.

What to do... 2009 with 77K on the clock. :-/

I'm hoping its as simple as a coolant leak and change the head gasket.

 

[rodslinger]

In the actual cylinder or just oil in the spark plug tube?

If it is the spark plug tube then that might be the issue. Change your valve cover gasket and spark plug tube seals. While motor oil (when new/clean) isn't normally conductive, the contaminates in it may alter the impedance and allow it to pass some high voltage. There ARE carbon deposits in the used oil after all which is conductive. If the spark plug tube is full of oil and has a lower path of resistance than the spark plug itself, I could see it causing a misfire on that cylinder.

 

[daonly1around]

The liquid in the spark plug chamber has a consistency of water. The chamber the spark plug was in was almost full.

When you look into the head after you take the spark plug out you can tell it looks like a mixture of oil and water.

 

[rodslinger]

Are you losing coolant? If you look into the oil fill cap, does it look milky also. Oil on the dipstick look milky?

I always keep faith that the simplest explanation is the correct one. Maybe water from washing the engine or rain splash is mixed in the spark plug tube with the leaky oil. Of course removing the plug just allows this mess to drain into the cylinder and it will look like you described.

I would think you should show more symptoms of a blown head gasket. Rough idle, engine miss, loss of coolant, milky oil on the dipstick, white/steam from exhaust even after being warmed up.

Any of those symptoms too?

 

[daonly1around]

I had a rough idle and engine miss. I do not "appear" to be loosing coolant. The dip stick looks like new oil. I do not have any white/steam from the exhaust.

I did buy the car about three weeks ago and the engine bay was thoroughly cleaned.

When I soaked "most" of the water out of the spark plug chamber it did not have sweet smell (or any smell for that matter), and literally felt like water.

 

[loosenut]

Ahh. Did you happen to look at the ignition coil after you removed it to see if it was all wet? Short part of the story, oil tends to get spilled on valve cover when refilling and flows down into coil valley. If someone pressure washed it to clean it, oil and water will make its way past coil seal and the water will provide path to short the coil. You may have not noticed it but when you removed the spark plug that mixture would then fall into the cylinder. I would clean and dry everything thoroughly then reinstall and see what happens. I'll bet it was just water shorting the coil. Also move that coil to cyl 4 and 4 to 1. If the coil is damaged you should then get a P0304. Good luck.

 

[daonly1around]

So, if I'm not seeing a lose of anti freeze, and no white smoke I could have a coil pack that is shorted out?

 

[loosenut]

If my theory of how the water made its way into the cylinder is correct, the coil could have been damaged due to the short. If you've cleaned everything and you're still getting a misfire and P0301, try swapping that coil with any of the other coils 2,3,4 and see if the code moves to that specific cylinder. If it doesn't then something more serious is going on. Also see if the mixture has reappeared in the cylinder itself.

 

[rodslinger]

So, if I'm not seeing a lose of anti freeze, and no white smoke I could have a coil pack that is shorted out?

Or just shorting the spark due to the water in the plug tube. Misfires were more common in the days of distributor ignition vehicles when you would wash the engine but isn't impossible on coil-on-plug setups either. Especially when the plug tube give a nice place for water to pool up.

As mentioned above, I'd clean the plug tubes out and make sure they are dry. If they had signs of oil, change the valve cover gasket and tube seals also. If any of the coil to plug boots feel soft from soaking in the oil it may be best to change it out also. If it misfires after that, swap a pair of coils and see if the miss follows the coil or stays on the same cylinder.

FYI... Mazda is changing my valve cover gasket right now due to oil leaking in one of the plug wells. Am supposed to pickup tomorrow.

 

[daonly1around]

there was no oil on the tubes, just water.

What about the little bit of water that fell through past the spark plug? That should evaporate correct? I think at this point I'll just change the coil pack and all the plugs and see how it runs.

loosenut, I used to play xbox with a guy name loosenut, are you the same guy?

 

[loosenut]

No, that wouldn't be me. Never been into gaming. Crank the engine over with the spark plugs removed, coils disconnected and injectors disconnected. all very easy to access on this motor. Crank until all the water has been removed, then reinstall everything. Good luck with the repair.