Chip Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 I was thinking of changing the plugs on my '03 Impreza RS and managed to pull off one of the plug wires,(front driver side). I was surprised to find oil in and around the hole...right where outside end of the plug wire covers the hole...(the round part where is seals the valve cover). I'm hoping it's normal and that the plug-wire rubber seal is designed to keep the oil inside the valve cover. Could someone please confirm ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bratman18 Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 I was thinking of changing the plugs on my '03 Impreza RS and managed to pull off one of the plug wires,(front driver side). I was surprised to find oil in and around the hole...right where outside end of the plug wire covers the hole...(the round part where is seals the valve cover). I'm hoping it's normal and that the plug-wire rubber seal is designed to keep the oil inside the valve cover. Could someone please confirm ? Not really. It means that your valve cover gaskets are leaking. There are actually rubber seals that go around the spark plug openings in the valve cover and that means they are leaking. It can and will cause your car to skip and sputter at times so You should probably change your valve cover gaskets, plugs and might as well change wires too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J A Blazer Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 TAmore accurate description of what is leaking is the gasket at the top of the spark plug tube. The valve cover gaskets are something else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hohieu Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 (edited) The part # for the leaky spark plug well seals is 10966AA000. How many miles do you have on your car? I had slow leaks from these seals for about 30K miles, which caused no adverse effects. At 135K miles, I adjusted the valves and replaced these seals, along with the ignition wires and valve cover gaskets. If you don't plan on replacing these parts in the near future, you could try tightening the valve cover bolts about 1/8 of a turn. Edited November 17, 2008 by hohieu typos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 Replace the wires too, as the oil damages the rubber in the wire boots. you could end up with a mis-fire problem in the future. nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bratman18 Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 TAmore accurate description of what is leaking is the gasket at the top of the spark plug tube. The valve cover gaskets are something else. Yeah I know what I meant but couldn't think of the actual name...If you pull the valve covers to replace them you will end up replacing the valve covers as well and they all come in the same kit so I figured he would get what I was saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 Get the "kit" from subaru. After market the seals for the buckets (spark plugs) are inferior and will not last very long. nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bratman18 Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 Get the "kit" from subaru. After market the seals for the buckets (spark plugs) are inferior and will not last very long. nipper +1 yes get the subaru seals!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hohieu Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 (edited) I don't know of an aftermarket supplier for the spark plug well seals. Fel-Pro has never let me down. They sell a kit that includes the two gaskets and bolt grommets so you'd need to order the other seals separately. Edit: To head off any confusion, I see that the Felpro kits now actually include the spark plug well seals (4) as mentioned below by davebugs. The OEM seals started leaking on my Forester at around 75K miles/5 years. I can't imagine the aftermarket kit could be much worse. Edited December 9, 2008 by hohieu Updated Felpro Kit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davebugs Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 Yea - I certainly don't want to start a 'water squirting' contest but I've used Fel-Pro for these without any issues so far. I use dealer for HG's water pump, cam & crank, oil pump Oring, cam Orings(2.2), and Fel-Pro for everything else. Sometimes I do use dealer for other gaskets if I'm going there anyways and price is about the same (exhaust, intake, etc.). The Fel-Pro kit was 27.00 last week that included the 2 VC gaskets, metal/rubber washers, and 4 spark plug Orings. Way less expensive than the dealer. This was for a 2000 2.5 SOHC and I happened to have the invoice laying here. The 2.5 DOHC's are about the same price - if not the same exact kit. Under 30 bucks - but at the dealer it's much more everytime I price it. My dealer doesn't seem to be aware of a 'kit'. Perhaps that's part of the pricing issue. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chip Posted November 17, 2008 Author Share Posted November 17, 2008 The car has 130,000 kms on it, (80,700 mi). I was going to change the plugs because it was skipping and sputtering when cold,(probably due to the oil on and around the plugs). I'll try tightening the Valve cover bolts a bit to see if it helps....(although it'll be hard to tell because it's not leaking externally so I can't see the leaks). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nipper Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 tightening them wont have any effect on the gromit seals around the buckets. The skip your describing is from just what your seeing, and go ahead and change the plugs. nipper Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SubPar Posted November 18, 2008 Share Posted November 18, 2008 Check out my avatar. That's my 02 Outback Sport. I made sure to clean all the oil out of the spark plug well before removing the plugs.The plugs were fine, no oil had leaked past the threads. I replaced the plugs (NGK) and wires (Rallitek) anyway, as that's what I was doing when I discovered the leaks. I added a can of Stop Leak additive to my next oil change, and I've been very careful to not overfill when changing the oil. 8,000 miles later, I checked the seals, and no more leakage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatswhatshesaid Posted November 19, 2008 Share Posted November 19, 2008 I had this problem in my SOHC 2.5...the leak somehow developed really fast on a road trip and got way worse before I could get home. By the time I fixed it, (after the 900-mile road trip) it was misfiring and had killed my knock sensor and one plug wire was totally dead - another was on the way out. Get to it sooner than later - messed up knock sensor and O2 sensors are a possible side effect if you wait too long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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