Coil wire plastic conduit brittle/disiintergrating

[Leo99]

One thing leads to another....

Bonehead me forgot to put the oil cap back on the valve cover on my wife's Rav4 yesterday. Wife complained about the smell of oil and loud noises like a broken muffler As soon as she pulled in the garage, I could smell the oil and right away thought about the oil cap. Luckily, the cap was still on the strut tower, none the worse for its 100 mile ride. There was oil all over the vale cover, air filter box, 2 of the coils, and sprayed around the engine compartment. About a 1/2 qt worth. Cleaned it up the best I could and pulled two coils to clean them. The corrugated plastic "conduit" is very brittle that surround the wires that feed the coils. Felt like anything I'd try to do to remedy that would only make matters worse.

Anything to worry about?

The loud muffler sound disappeared. Maybe the engine made more noise with the oil cap missing? I'm doing any experiments to find out. Cleaned up enough oil for today.

 

[Lubener]

Wire loom protects the wiring from the heat and you should be able to find replacements at auto parts stores. Heat resistant loom will have a line present on the side.

 

[Rand]

if need be you can spray it down with some degreaser and gently hose it off. I wouldnt powerwash.. maybe steamclean.

 

[Leo99]

Originally Posted By: Lubener
Wire loom protects the wiring from the heat and you should be able to find replacements at auto parts stores. Heat resistant loom will have a line present on the side.


Thanks! Didn't know it was called "loom".

 

[spackard]

Should get all the oil off of any coolant hoses.

 

[01rangerxl]

Spray it down with electrical connector cleaner and wipe off. Then apply something like Mother's VLR, 303 protectant, or another vinyl/plastic protectant. If the conduit is in really bad shape, cut off the bad part with a razor and/or wire cutters, then put a new piece on and wrap it in electrical tape. You can get conduit in the electrical section of any parts store.

 

[DP78]

I've found overhead cam engines will sound like an exhaust leak with the oil cap off. Always a good tip when doing an oil change.