Oil Change Fail (minor). Advice needed.

I did an oil change last week and had a minor incident. I couldn't find my funnel so I made a make-shift one out of a plastic juice bottle (well washed out). This "funnel" only just barely fit into the oil filler hole and doh a whole butt load of oil spilt out of a small gap at the back where apparently it didn't seal properly with the filler hole.

I didn't notice the spilt oil at first, as a I thought I was being careful pouring it and there was no sign of any leakage at the front where I could see it. So it was actually about 15 minutes later when cleaning up that I noticed that I'd just about filled with oil the whole recess in the valve cover where the igniters are!

I cleaned this up ok. I had to remove the little relay box below the wipers to get good access but that let my do a pretty good job of mopping it all up. The only thing that I'm wondering about is just how well are those igniters/coils sealed there at the top of the valve cover. I haven't touched the spark-plugs yet on the Prius so I've not yet removed an igniter/coil to take a good look. It appears as if there's a pretty good seal there and I don't think much/any oil should have gotten down there but I'm just wondering what others think about this. Would oil down there cause much problems? Should I remove the igniters/coils and take a look? The cars still running great btw.

 

Abridged version for those who don't like long winded stories.

- I spilt a cup or so of oil behind filler hole when doing last oil change.
- It just about filled the little recess in the valve cover where the coils/igniters/sparkplugs are.
- Oil (5W30 synth) was sitting there for about 15 to 20 minutes before I mopped it all up.
- Wondering if much (or any) oil got down into the igniters/plugs and if I should remove them to check/clean?

 

Thanks Andy. I wasn't keen on removing the igniters unless it was thought that there might be future ignition problems if anything got down there.

 

Yeah all external oil was cleaned up ok and there's been no "smoking" issues. I was just hoping that someone who's pulled the igniters before could comment on just how good is that seal.

What made my think about this was the pictures of removed spark plugs posted here by another member a few days ago. They clearly showed that number1 plug had been sitting in water which presumably had leaked from the cowling into that valve cover recess. So obviously water can get past that seal if it's sitting there long enough.

The difference of course is that in my case 5W30 motor oil is a fair bit thicker than water and it was only there for about 15 minutes.

 

Thanks Patrick I might do that tomorrow if I get a chance.

Some questions
- Do the igniters just push-clip onto the ends of the spark plugs in roughly the same way as conventional HT spark plug leads do in older cars (old like with coil and distributor etc).
- If so then after I remove that one bolt can I just pull the igniter straight out?
-Also should I unclip the wiring first or can it swing out with the wiring in place?

 

Hi AA. In the end I didn't pull the ignitors, but decided to drive it and see if any problems eventuated. None did. Maybe I was just lucky, if you're sure that yours is running rough then it would be a good idea to check/clean the igniters.

BTW. My mishap was at about 100,000 km, and I'm now at 187,000 km without any issues. I will be changing the plugs (for the 1st time) on my next scheduled service, which will be at around 200,000 km. So I guess I'll get a really good look at the igniters then.

 

I'm pretty sure you get an engine check light and an error code logged if there's any serious misfiring. How badly is it "running rough", is there any chance it could just be imagined? You could try having a look in the dark (pitch black) and see if you can notice any faint arcing or anything from the area around the igniters. Other than that I'm out of ideas, other than to pull them and clean them.

 

I doubt that a small change in viscosity would have any significant effect on how the engine runs. People run all the way from 0w20 up to 15w40 in the Prius without any noticeable effect on how it runs.

BTW. What oil type/grade are you using?