2001 ES, oil leaking into cylinder 2

[Cobra]

Hey all,

I did a full tune up before, as the service engine soon light came on from cylinder #2 misfiring. when i was replacing the spark plugs, i noticed a few drops of oil on the #2 cylinder spark plug. does this car need a new valve cover gasket, or am i screwed and the piston ring might be fried? the car has 100,000 miles on it exactly now. also, when i did the tune up i used denso iridium spark plugs, and replaced the spark plug wires with a good brand as well. and not even ~8,000 miles later, the car started misfiring again, service engine soon light comes on and off sometimes(especially under hard acceleration). what do you guys think? thanks

[mko]

Do a compression test for the particular cylinder. also, Id get some Stock NGK plugs from the dealer. It also could be an electrical issue - coil pack, wires...

[Stewi]

was there any oil down in the tube before you pulled the spark plug, like oil coming from the tube seals and then dripping down onto the plug?

[Cobra]

just wanted to update you guys, i replaced the valve cover gasket- it was really bad, took about 45 minutes to get the old gasket off, it was almost melted into the valve cover. it was leaking from the spark plug seals as you suggested, Stewi. also, one of the coil boots was cracked, replaced that as well and all is fine! car has 102,000 miles and running strong!

[bsilver23]

same thing happened to me in the middle of august...mitsubishi dealer quoted me for 1300 to fix it but i took it to midas and they did it for 800. They said i was really running on 4 cylinders and I have a v6 so that was no good. After I got it fixed there was soo much more power. Is your car idling high too then? My was idling like a mother and at a stopsign or light it was shaking like crazy.

[Cobra]

same thing happened to me in the middle of august...mitsubishi dealer quoted me for 1300 to fix it but i took it to midas and they did it for 800. They said i was really running on 4 cylinders and I have a v6 so that was no good. After I got it fixed there was soo much more power. Is your car idling high too then? My was idling like a mother and at a stopsign or light it was shaking like crazy.

damn, even $800 is a lot. me and a friend did all the work ourselves within about an hour and change.

the idle is still high, actually. it idles at about ~1,100 rpm. thanks for reminding me, what can i do to lower the idle? the spark plugs are all brand new(denso iridiums).

[bsilver23]

honestly, i am not sure, what they did with my car took about 6 hours because they had to remove some stuff to get at what needed to be worked on. They replaced more than just the spark plugs...i am not sure quite where the bill is that says what exactly they fixed but when i find it i will let you know all of the things they did. all i can tell you is that when this problem is fixed, the car is so much smoother than you are used to and much more powerful.