When replacing the plugs, wires, and coil pack on my friend's 2007 Forester, I noticed a fair amount of oil pooled in each of the 4 spark plug wells.  Of course it all leaked into the chambers and subsequently smoked like an old diesel upon start-up, but that rapidly cleared up and all is well now.  BUT, I'm wondering how soon I really need to get back in there and replace the gaskets.  It's only leaking into the wells - no external leaks at all.  Think I can let it slide for awhile?  With 77K miles on the clock, I'd prefer to wait until it's time to replace the timing belt and tear into everything at once. 

 

Appreciate any input.

Why did you replace the wires or coilpack?  

 

Do the spark plug seals asap.  They cause a lot of misfires and strange behavior and aren't going to be a lot easier to do while the timing belt service is being performed.  

You should replace the gaskets and the bucket seals (plug seals). Get those from subaru, get the valve cover from anywhere.

 

Why did you replace so many parts? Oil contaimnates the sprak plug wires and they swell up and the silicon breaks down, which causes miss fires.

it was probably the leaking gaskets that were causing the misfires which initiated the coil and plugs to be replaced?

 

either way - what they said - i'd replace them now, probably going to slowly leak again.  the spark plug tube gaskets really suck on these and for some reason aren't great at making high mileages. of course you can always try and wait it out if that's your bent, you'll get misfires to tell you when it's bad again.

plus, it is pretty easy to do unless you have an H6.

 

a few bolts, 6?, on each side and 2 gaskets, tube seals.