I just got a 97' accord SE with 114,000 miles on it. The person I bought it from just had some kind of 100,000 mile maintenance done on it. It started missing on me when I try to hold a steady speed (60) so I decided to change the spark plugs and wires. When I pulled one of the spark plug wires off I notice oil all over it. There is no sign of oil leaking out onto the engine. When I pulled the spark plug, it was coated with oil. What could this be? Is it the valve cover gasket leaking? Is this the cause of the "missing"? I noticed that it had Bosch Platinum 4 plugs in it when I took them out.
Also, how do you change the transmission filter? Do you have to disassemble anything? It doesn't show anything in the Haynes manual.

 

Change the valve cover gasket yourself it's easy. If that doesn't fix it, then expect to pay.

 

If not the valve cover gasket, then what? The head gasket?

 

I meant the head gasket. It's easy too.

 

Most likely its not the head gasket, there are separate seals for the spark plug tubes, i had the same exact problem, on the far left plug.. but it ended up being the tube gasket (ring that goes around the inside of the valve cover that seals the SP tubes from the valves).... I would sugges going to an autozone or something of that sort and buying a new whole head gasket set for your car (cost was about $25 for '95) and replace them yourself, should take you about 10-15 min to replace them and your problem should be solved!

 

I acutally had oil on all my plugs.

 

I agree but start with the easy things first. If it is a head gasket you will likely be experiencing a loss in coolant that you can't account for. Go with the O ring around the spark plug tubes & the valve cover gasket first, that's a simple deal to accomplish. Go from there..........also get rid of those spark plugs and go with what Honda calls for.

 

Spark Plug Tube seals. Normally included with the valve cover gasket. When you remove the valve cover, look underneed. They are right there under each plug hole. TheOnlyDRAGooN: I can not beleive you said is the head gasket. You have to learn about Hondas and watch your mouth and stop misleading people...thats irresponsible.

 

I take it the spark plugs sit recessed in the valve cover? I know most dual cam valve covers use this kind of setup, is this right? Not owning one I can only give basic advice. Did you say you had oil on every one? And do they have covers over the plugs that would keep oil from getting onto them if the prev. owner or the last person that changed the oil got messy and spilled oil onto them? The first step I'd do is remove and clean them along with the whole area that they reside in and put them back in. (cover the holes so nothing falls into the cyl. area as well) Then I'd start the car and watch for a bit if it's at all visable and see if oil comes out again or drive it a bit and check it. If the oil comes back then get the required parts to fix the leak. Another thought, if you could find some plug wires that didn't have the covers on them that you could attach them to the plugs so you could start the car and get a good view at the plugs with it running so if any leak was there it would be easy to see. I'd run it that way and use a good flashlight so you could get a lot of light in there to see if oil starts to seap into the plug area. Good luck with it...

 

Tube seals. We see them at my work all the time. They seal off the spark plug tubes from the inside of the head. When they go bad they will leak oil down into the tubes and cover the plugs with oil.