Raptor_
Member
- Joined
- March 3, 2017
- Messages
- 46
- Reaction score
- 4
- City, State
- Chicago
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '05 Explorer Eddie Bauer
2005 4.6L V8 Around 205k miles
It had been a very wet week here, and I was exiting the car wash when I started to get that familiar misfire shudder. After driving various vehicles with this engine over the past 15 years or so, I knew that COPs often failed in damp weather or after a wash when water would get in the spark plug well and short the coil, so I figured that's what it was, and I happened to have a spare in my closet at home, so no biggie. I waited for the code, saw it was #8 (rear plug on driver's side), then went to check it out. Everything looked pretty dry up top. I pulled the COP, and sure enough it was wet at the bottom... but it was wet with coolant! Sopped up what I could with a piece of paper shop towel and installed the other coil and everything's working as it should, but I can't figure out where the coolant would have come from.
Every now and then, I'll get a faint whiff of coolant, but the level isn't dropping noticeably, there's no steam, and I can't see anything anywhere else. Most of the cooling connections and junctions that I know of are either on the other side, or at the front of the engine, so how did coolant get into the #8 plug well? Any ideas as to where I should look for the leak?
It had been a very wet week here, and I was exiting the car wash when I started to get that familiar misfire shudder. After driving various vehicles with this engine over the past 15 years or so, I knew that COPs often failed in damp weather or after a wash when water would get in the spark plug well and short the coil, so I figured that's what it was, and I happened to have a spare in my closet at home, so no biggie. I waited for the code, saw it was #8 (rear plug on driver's side), then went to check it out. Everything looked pretty dry up top. I pulled the COP, and sure enough it was wet at the bottom... but it was wet with coolant! Sopped up what I could with a piece of paper shop towel and installed the other coil and everything's working as it should, but I can't figure out where the coolant would have come from.
Every now and then, I'll get a faint whiff of coolant, but the level isn't dropping noticeably, there's no steam, and I can't see anything anywhere else. Most of the cooling connections and junctions that I know of are either on the other side, or at the front of the engine, so how did coolant get into the #8 plug well? Any ideas as to where I should look for the leak?