Dealership dropped something in cylinder head during spark plug replacement

Those titanium nose rings are always causing problems, they end up in the strangest places.

 

Could be nothing and the tech thought he lost something or heard something. The new gaskets should help the motor if properly seated.

 

id spend a few hours as a tech trying to get whatever fell down out of the cylinder with some magnets etc etc before pulling the head.... I too would not want a pristine motor pulled apart.

Demand lifetime powertrain warranty.

Also, this is why i do all my own work.

 

I left an engine on a sweeper running to check for spark and I pulled the plug wire off. That shit hurt lol

 

You're engine will most likely be fine as long as the seal the head back up good and as long as they get whatever fell in out. Probably still have a 300k engine. They won't have some new guy working on the engine, they will have a guy who knows what he's doing.

 

You will know in a instant if they removed whatever fell in. If something is left in the cylinder. engine will fail hard and fast.

Not entirely sure why they woud go straight to opening up the engine. If whatever entered was small enough to go down the plug hole, why cant it come back out?

 

It may not be metal. Not really a good way to get non metal objects out of a cylinder.

 

This x2 - it should be very apparent what fell in the engine if there’s something missing from the plug or tool. I would ask a few more questions before saying sure, take it apart.

Good on the tech and the dealership for owning up to it and taking care of the problem though; many would not. Rest easy, if they volunteer to fix it, I would expect that the more experienced techs will handle a head gasket job - they won’t have a rookie doing this. If they screw it up, it should be apparent pretty quickly. Keep an eye on the coolant Level.

 

gum on the end of a stick? seriously they do make small grabbers. I have one I believe would fit down grab something and pull it up, but no idea what its called.

 

I know what you're talking about, but if the ceramic chipped on the spark plug, you're not grabbing it with this, and theres no guarantee that if you do get a piece out that its the only piece. If it was me that dropped something in the head that wasn't a bolt or nut, I'd want to take the head off too.

 

You should direct your questions to the dealer. Not to people on TW. That being said they will warranty the work they do. If you get a leak from a gasket they removed and replaced for the repair, they will fix it within a certain time frame of course. If something happens 50k miles later obviously that wouldn’t be attributed to the repair. I’d assume something did fall in because if they weren’t sure they would of just continued the spark plug replacement and probably fired the engine up.


Oh and to the people bashing and saying this is why they do their own work, this could of happened to you. Atleast they owned up and are doing the right thing. We’ve all fucked up and made mistakes. I’ve worked on cars for 14 years, 10 year inside dealerships. I’ve made plenty of mistakes, and fixed lots of people mistakes who do their “own work”. Sometimes shit just happens

 

There is something they are not telling you. Anything that fell in could be removed without pulling the head. A borescope camera would tell them in a second what's in the cylinder. Ask then to show you what fell in there.

 

You can also soak a rope in grease, shove it in the spark plug hole until its covering the top of the piston, then pull it out, with the piece stuck to it.

 

I kind of wonder if someone cross-threaded and stripped out a plug hole when installing the new plugs. Even then, you usually don't have to pull the head to do a time-sert or Heli-coil.

 

I would think a suction tube (like the kind a dentist uses) with a screen on it would be able to putt out whatever fell into the spark plug hole

 

This actually reads to me they’re saying something fell into the head, not the cylinder/block. It’s very vague and I’d get clarification in writing. They could easily come back later if convenient and say they just meant they were pulling the valve cover, not separating the heads from the block.

 

Very good point. It does sound a bit suspicious.

 

A small piece of ceramic (spark plug) , I've seen completely trash a cylinder head and piston

 

As a auto tech for over 30 years, I can tell you that if something fell into the cylinder, they started the engine and it was knocking. and that's when they stopped and let you know. I would tell them yes take it apart but you want to see inside of your engine ( top of the pistons ) and inside of the head. Anything steel that fell into the hole will have dented and or be stuck into the piston and or head. Valves could have been bent, connecting rod could have bent. I have done spark plugs on a 4.0 the upper intake manifold has to be removed to do them. a bigger item could have fallen into the cylinder thru the intake manifold . Don't settle for just pictures of what they say is your engine see it for yourself. This could turn into a much larger problem then many may think . But this is just my thoughts on what's going on .

 

Ay least they were upfront about it. Which is good . I'd keep.all paperwork in relation to this incident. Including the initial email, and any further ones. Plus I'd make notes on any conversation that you have with the dealer ,whether be in person or on the phone. .With dates and times that the conversations took place and with whom.
You may never need any of this stuff. But if you ever did, because things went south somehow. You'll be glad that you have it.


Good luck and keep us posted