user 710812323

I was bored this morning so I looked at the engine bay of my car. I noticed a loose bolt through one of the covers. When I pulled the covers off I found that 6 of the 8 coils were loose (not even seated all the way) and the bolts were just hanging there. I took a couple coils out and found a plastic ring that fits around the rubber of the coil. It was between the rubber seal of the top of the coil and the valve cover gasket. Is this needed? It looks a little like packing material that keeps the rubber on the coil in shape in the box.

user 710812323

sha4000

iTrader: (1)

Those should be the spark plug hole seals and yes you do need them.

user 710812323

Ahh. I see.
They were originally mounted upside down. Surprisingly, the engine still seemed to run fine. I assume this ring must come with the seal itself then.

user 710812323

This missing ring wouldn't contribute to oil in the plug tube at all, would it?

sdls

That seal doesn't look like anything I've seen on the car. I might be wrong but I think that it doesn't belong there. The spark plug tube seals that go into the valve cover are very different. And if you try to stack a rubber o-ring on top of another rubber o-ring then nothing would be sealed at all.

user 710812323

I did put them in flipped over compared to the picture I attached. It did seem to help center the coil in the plug tube better.

Edit: NOT flipped over. I fit it in same orientation as pictured.

Tec80

Those are the rings that need to be popped out to change plugs without having to pry the engine away from the strut towers. Whoever changed the plugs last didn't put everything back correctly.

sdls

Those rings are beefy cylinders, bigger than the mystery o ring in the picture

user 710812323

It's not an o-ring. It's plastic. Flat on one side, chamfered on the other. The chamfered edge fits inside the rubber on the coil without contacting the plastic tabs that hold the rubber on the coil. They also fit snuggly in the seals that sit in the valve cover.

sdls

thanks for the clarification.. this post really had me scratching my head and wondering where I wasn’t making the connection!

user 710812323

HA! No problem!

I wasn't understanding what it was for at first either until sha4000 confirmed I needed them. I have a seal and ring on order from my local dealer.