This doesn't look good

[Finklejag]

I'm down visiting my parents. They have a 2002 PT Cruiser 2.4. The car is well maintained. As of today it has 85,000 miles on it. I replaced the plugs and wires at 60,000. I just replaced the plugs right now. The PT has to be one of the worst cars to perform this duty. You have to remove the air box, intake manifold, remove several bolts to get to the plugs.

The car has been on a steady diet of synthetic oil for the life of the car. For the last five years, it's been on a once a year OCI. My mother probably puts about 5,000 miles on it per year.

It started to burn oil regularly for a couple of years. I replaced the PCV valve and PCV hose today also. It had dry rot and was leaking oil. The plugs looked normal when I replaced them at 60,000. Only cylinder 1 & 4 looked like this plug. Cylinder 2 & 3 looked normal.

Tell me what I have?

 

[Klutch9]

Since all the sludge is outside of the combustion chamber, my guess is a leaky valve cover gasket. Many times the oil will still be liquid if it leaks into the spark plug wells, but maybe the seepage is slow enough, and there is sufficient heat to sludge up the oil that is draining into the wells. Is there oil weeping from anywhere else on the VCG?

 

[JHZR2]

+1 those round gaskets that go around the SP holes - maybe enough oil has spilled in and decomposed to make that sludgey mess???

 

[MCompact]

Yes- it looks like the valve cover gasket is leaking...

 

[doitmyself]

I concur with the above, and there are lots of threads of this problem with many auto brands. It's not an expensive fix, but the PT is a bit harder to work on:

http://www.ptcruiserlinks.com/forum/general-pt-cruiser-discussions/41638-oil-spark-plug-tube.html

The times I have witnessed this problem, the plugs and tube were always wet with oil.

Is there any chance this example was from a very loose spark plug instead??

 

[440Magnum]

Not unusual for an engine with the plugs recessed down in "tubes" through the valve cover. The gasket weeps a little oil around the outside of the plug and it cokes up. New O-rings at the base of the plug tubes will fix it, or just ignore it. Its messy, but harmless.

The PT can be a pain to work on, but I'd rather do spark plugs on a dozen PT's than on one v6 minivan. At least all the stuff that comes off is MADE to come off easily, and you don't have to stand on your head.

 

[Kuato]

Agreed with above, valve cover spark plug gaskets....had the same issue.

We have the same engine in the Jeep. At first it was a real pain to change plugs because of all the stuff in the way, but once you get your routine and tools in order, it really is a very straightforward job. I imagine it's even easier on the PT with the transverse mounted engine.

 

[HerrStig]

The business end of the plug looks OK.

 

[exranger06]

I did a plug change on a PT Cruiser once. I thought it was very easy to do. Yes, you have to remove the air intake and the intake manifold, but they're very easy to remove and all the bolts are easily accessible.

 

[silvercivicsi]

IMO its the valve cover gasket like everyone else is saying. Tip of the plug looks fine so oil isn't getting into the combustion chamber.

 

[hattaresguy]

That plug looks fine, replace the valve cover gasket and put that plug back in.

Modern plugs can go at least 100k miles.

 

[Finklejag]

The PT calls for copper plugs and 30K intervals. People have used Platinum plugs but the engine likes copper better.

I don't think my parents want to spend the money to replace the gaskets. The last two years they replaced the tires, timing belt, water pump, radiator hoses, struts, strut bearings, and shocks. The car will be 13 years old in May. I think it served them well for those years. A new car might be on their bucket list.

 

[Spazdog]

Yep. Round seal by the spark plug tube.

You can see where the #2 seal was leaking on my PT-GT.

I don't know why the N/A 2.4 couldn't be made more like the Turbo.

I didn't have to take off the cast intake manifold until that spark plug tube started leaking. I could do the plugs without removing the intake. I don't see how you can do that on the plastic manifold.

Another design that I don't understand.

It ran okay on copper core Champions and platinum Champions. Couldn't really tell the difference. Ran better on NGK V-power than it did on either of the Champions. I didn't try any other brands.