Hey guys,

I'm going to snap here. Basically my car has been serviced by Honda for it's entire life. Last summer I decided I would no longer take it to Honda and service it myself. I'm not sure if anyone remembers my story of the oil filter from hell that would not come off due to lack of oil on gasket and over tightening. Well I have another issue for you all. My spark plugs will not come out. I do not believe I have stripped them. I loosened them up and the damn things could not come out of the spark plug holes. I never changed my plugs honda did it up until today. After reinstalling the plugs, the coil packs go in fine and I am not receiving any engine light or codes. So I clearly have reinstalled them fine and have not stripped or screwed anything up. My question is twofold. How can I get these damn things out? I've been at this well over 12 hours and should I just let honda deal with it as it's their mess they should fix as they were the ones who touched them last. Car isn't covered under warranty but since they are the ones to fuck it, you bet your ass they are fixing it/repairing it. I also thought that maybe they heli-coiled them without my knowledge and that's why I couldn't get em out. I'm going to snap.

 

Better you snapping than your plugs! How many times did Honda change your spark plugs?

 

Car has 160,000km on it. Cannot remember how many times. Any time engine light came out it was brought into honda. Car was purchased of my mom years ago.

If I snapped a plug I would know. I know I haven't yet lol.

I think honda snapped my plugs. And is going to try to hold me responsible.

 

You said you re-installed them already? That means you took them out once already? I'm confused.

Usually, you put some sort of anti-seize on the plug threads. I use the bronze colored Loctite stick.

Maybe they didn't use anti-seize or perhaps they over tightened them? How long ago did Honda change them?

 

I can loosen them but they will not come out of the slot. Today I loosened them couldn't get them out then just re tightened them. When ever my A1-4 came up last was when they were changed. Possibly last year.

 

If you're at all anxious about it, don't do it yourself. Cracking a plug, the head, or screwing up the threads may put your car down, better have it somewhere they can fix it before that happens lol. I'd take it to an independent shop regardless of if Honda did it last and see what they say. If the dealership did indeed screw something up, take a written observation/diagnosis from the shop back to them and put it in their face.

To me it's not worth fighting with the incompetence of a dealership, my time is worth more than that headache and whatever money it costs. I've recently taken my car in for a few small things and I had to fix errors they made myself both times. I am back to DIY again (sorry for rant)

 

I hear you and your rant. I'm going to have a buddy look at it. He's basically a mechanic lol. I dunno how many engine swaps he's done. I'm hoping nothing is wrong and in just stupid lol. Which I'm starting to think I am solely because I don't see how I would screw up the threads by just loosening and then tightening plugs the way you would normally do it. Coil packs fit fine and no engine codes. I just think I'm doing something wrong lol

 

OK so you were able to loosen them. Are they then loose in the spark plug wall? Are you using a regular 5/8 deep socket? If thats the case the plug has nothing to catch on to and cannot be removed. Simply stick your coil pack back on the spark plug and pull it out. Does that make sense? Basically the plug will get stuck to the coil pack and come out. Give that a whirl unless you didi that.

 

I saw a guy on YouTube with a great trick. He uses simple PVC tubbing you can buy at crappy tire. You slip the tube in the hole and can catch the plug in the opening. You'd have to get a fairly large diameter tube. One with an opening of at least 4-5mm. He then uses the same tube to thread the plugs and get them started before going to a torque wrench.

Try that.

 

Doesn't a spark plug socket have something on the tip of it so that it can grab the spark plug after you loosen it? In 12 years I have only ever changed the spark plug on a vehicle once, and it was a scooter so I just pulled it out after I loosened it. My Fit is the only vehicle I have owned long enough that needed new spark plugs and I paid a mechanic to do it for me because I'm lazy and don't know what I'm doing with respect to spark plugs.

 

Make sure your using the right size spark plug socket. Make sure the rubber boot inside the socket isn't worn out or deformed. I've seen older ones that turn hard and lose their gripping capability.

Also, if you haven't seen this DIY, take a look - https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...5a-vtec-4.html

 

I found out what the culprit is. Someone left the inner rubber from the spark plug socket in my spark plug hole. Really?

 

At least you found out. I still don't understand how you were able to fit your spark plug socket overtop of the existing stuck boot in the chamber in the first place? What cylinder was it?

 

Okay guys here is the update. Pics will follow soon.

Cylinder 1 had a rubber piece stuck around the plug. My socket couldn't grab the plug. It kept spinning and spinning. Hence I thought something was stripped need heli coils or re thread pull the head.

I got all plugs out fine. Each plug was hand tight!!!! Not torqued to 13lbs like they should be. I'm pretty pissed. I went through service records plugs were replaced once by honda. Car has 160,000km now.

I used a barbecue pick. Shoved it down there pulled out and voila rubber came out. Socket went in. Pulled plug. Now I'm having way better throttle response. You should see what the plug looks like.

So having said that, never again will my Fit go to th dealer for oil or plugs. I thought I was the idiot. Turns out. I wasn't me. It wasn't me!!! This was not me not knowing how to do a spark plug change. Done it on several non reverse motor Hondas. This was a day from hell like my oil change months ago. I just couldn't diagnose the problem till I took a pic and noticed what was there.

 

Yeah that explains things for sure. Glad you got it all worked out.

 

Pics? How did your plugs look?

 

Cylinder 2.3.4 were normal wear. You should see cylinder 1. Black as hell. And you can still see a bit of the rubber melted beside the hex.

How much would the dealer charge? New head gasket and a re thread job. Lol something that took me 4 hours and a whole night of thinking I need heli coils the night before. I will show what I used, the plug itself, and the rubber.

 

Stupid dealer!! I stopped going to them after they overfull my engine at oil change.
About 3/4 qts.
The service adviser tried to sell me ATF change at 30 k because "Honda recommends" it.
He disappeared after I asked him about related TSB !
On 2001 Escape v-6, 3 out of 6 plugs were tightened correctly, 2 were too tight and one was not tightened at all. I rented small torque wrench from Autozone to torque the plugs correctly (they have cone, not gasket like on Fits).
In Autozone the sales lady with triple chin made fun of me saying that no one ever rents a torque wrench for spark plugs.

 

Lol!!! Stupid lady. The store I bought my torque wrench said the same thing. $32 went to 10 different stores. Everyone claimed no one torques spark plugs and that they don't seek torque wrenchs to start at 10lbs. Well guess what, they do and you are suppose to. The dealer once again screwed me on general maintenance.

Sorry guys. Work week has bee long. Pics will slowly follow. Just lazy to put on photobucket from my phone