Seattle SCone

In March of 2020, Lexus of Bellevue replaced my valve cover gaskets.

One month ago, I discovered a lot of oil inside half of the spark plug wells while changing spark plugs. I cleaned out the oil, completed the spark plug change. Because it was not possible to know if it was an ongoing or old leaked oil, I decided to wait a month and recheck for oil before going ahead and repeating what Lexus Bellevue had performed and billed.

Meanwhile, I ordered a new valve cover gasket set and set that aside in case this was an ongoing oil leak into the spark plug wells.

So, what do you guys thing is going one?

1. Lexus Bellevue didn't change the spark plug well gaskets during the valve cover gasket service.

2. Lexus Bellevue changed the spark plug gaskets, but didn't bother to clean out old leaked oil from the spark plug wells.

3. Lexus Bellevue changed the spark plug gaskets, but their new gaskets are defective.

4. Elves poured oil into my spark plug wells.

Depending on what I find, this is going to an hour inspection of all the spark plug wells or a considerably longer valve cover gasket replacement project. I'll report back results tomorrow.
Meanwhile you can vote.

RC51

Just curious when Lexus of Bellevue replaced your valve cover gaskets.

SC400slide

iTrader: (11)

Honestly, I would recommend taking the car back to Bellevue Lexus, and hand them the keys, and let them know you paid them to replace the valve cover gaskets, but there is oil in the plug wells. Tell them to diagnose the cause of the leaking. Diag is around 100 bucks (here at ABQ Lexus dealership, anyways) My guess is they did the job incorrectly. I would not anticipate oil leaks, even oil residue after a Lexus dealership repair. If they incorrectly repaired, they should rectify free of charge.

In my experience, my wife's IS350 went in for a fuel delivery pipe recall. about 1 month later, I noticed that there was a strong scent of raw gasoline that was not present prior to the completion of the recall. Brought it in, and told them to diagnose. Turns out they pinched some fuel o-ring and they corrected free of charge. Just my $0.02

Seattle SCone

RC51, you mean like what time of the day?

Bgw70

he mentioned March of 2020...
;-)

st3rnly

Seems like the only logical option. They replaced the (outer) cover gaskets, but not the (inner) well gaskets.

Seattle SCone

Nobody went with elves.

After inspetcing all eight spark plug wells, I found no new accumulation of oil. There was a tiny bit of residue, probably left over from my prior clean up round while doing plugs a month ago. Having to pull the battery and air intake box to do the inspection was annoying, but how else to know for sure.

I think they did change the gaskets because there isn't any new accumulation of the past month.

They left the wells flooded with old oil. If I had not decided to change my plugs, I would have been driving around with the wells flooded, none the wiser, until an ignition coil failed.

RC51

10-4 .... 🤣

RC51

This is interesting. I would have assumed the oil would have simply drained into the cylinders after plug removal. I haven’t changed my plugs yet so I am not familiar with the geometry involved in the pooled oil.

Seattle SCone

The lower aspect of the well is below the lip of the inner plug opening. So a little bit can be retained. Actually, it is best to suction out and blot away as much oil as possible before removing plugs. You don't want a large bolus of oil to enter the cylinders.

Harold57

While I thought that was a great choice (loved it), it is obvious why elves couldn't have done it. Santa had them too busy getting ready for Christmas deliveries.