Ignition coils

[Dan]

I have a 2001 Honda Civic ex with 180000 miles on it and I have a few questions.
1 I’m going to replace the ignition coils, so does it matter if I buy after market or oem factory from Honda ?
I don’t plan on keeping the car for more then a yr.
2 The ignition coils plug is cover in oil does the only thing it could be is the valve cover gasket ?
or what else should I look for or test.

Topic

[Ben]

Even if you plan on keeping the vehicle, aftermarket is just fine.

And if the spark plug tubes are full of oil, then you will need a new valve cover gasket. The round gaskets for the spark plugs tubes tend to get hard and crack and the tubes fill with oil. They can be a pain to dig out, but is still not a difficult job.

There may be no need to replace the ignition coils, the build-up of oil in the spark plug tubes is likely the cause of a misfire and does not necessarily point to bad coils.

[Dan]

I had merlins changed the oil while my daughter was using the car and after a week I found out they overfilled the oil by 1 1/2 quarts, could that mess up the valve cover gasket ?
When I call them to informed them that they over filled the oil all they said was to bring it back and they will drain it out wtf I could do that.

[Ben]

No, that wouldn’t cause the valve cover gasket to go bad, but it could accelerate the oil seeping into the spark plug tubes.

[Brian]

Putting in too much oil will exacerbate any leaks already present. Over time, it could cause serious leaks.
I had a friend with a 99 civic. Every time he thought it was running bad, he added oil to it. The oil level was two inch from the handle of the dipstick. Talk about cavitation on the crank! Ran way better after draining off nearly 1.5 extra gallons of oil.

[Dan]

The reason I thought it was the ignition coils is I already had 2 replaced and at the time when it was replaced you could not drive the car, the car was running on 3 cylinders and I heard you should replace them every 100,000 miles ? and since I found 2 on ebay for 30.00 its worth it just in case it is going bad and she said the check engine light flashed and the car started to run bad so she park it at her place and is not driving it right now which is what happen last time.
My daughter lives a 45 min drive from me so I thought I would buy the 2 ignition coils and put them on and if there is oil on the ignition plugs I should be able to nurse the car back to my house place since she has no garage to work on the car. and replace the valve cover gasket and the spark plugs rings at my place..
Thanks for your advice.

[Dan]

ok update I took a look at all 4 ignition coils and the two ones that were replaced are fine and the other two were barley had any oil on them and also the shop that replaced the coil last time also replaced all four spark plugs.
So I took it for a ride and when you jump on it the car stalls or sputters and the check engin light flashes untill you idle or take your foot of the gas,
Do you think its because the other two coils are going bad ? or something else ?

[Ben]

First thing i would suggest is to see what codes are being thrown.
No use in just throwing parts at cars…

[Author]

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