I have a 2011 Acadia that just went over 100k miles and is now out of warranty. As Murphy would have it, the Check engine light just came on and the dealer is telling me that oil is leaking into the spark plug tube through the cylinder head. The dealer is telling me it will cost $1400 to fix. Does this sound like a legitimate problem/solution? Has anyone else seen this problem?
jeffworth
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Here's one thread where you'll find a discussion about this. There are links to a few other threads embedded in some posts.
http://www.acadiaforum.net/index.php?topic=23922.0
:welcome: , BTW
http://www.acadiaforum.net/index.php?topic=23922.0
:welcome: , BTW
I Posted this on the thread mentioned above...
But if it took 100,000 miles to finally get a check engine light for oil buildup in the hole.......
If you have not done so---
I would buy new plugs, and intake gasket on ebay or amazon...
clean out the oil, change the plugs----- put back toghether--- and drive till the light comes on again......
who knows-- maybe in another 100,000.................
Fluid in Spark Plug Tubes
March 25, 2013
A Check Engine light may be illuminated with misfire DTCs set, or a possible oil or coolant leak may be found, on some 2010-2013 Enclave, LaCrosse, CTS, SRX, Camaro, Equinox, Traverse, Acadia, Terrain; 2012-2013 Caprice PPV, Captiva, Impala; 2013 ATS and XTS models equipped with 3.0L and 3.6L (RPOs LF1, LFW, LLT, LFX) HFV6 engines. (Fig. 10)
On inspection, coolant or oil may be found in a spark plug tube. Determine if the oil or coolant is coming from the spark plug tube and not leaking into it from above. If the spark plug tube is leaking, replace the cylinder head, spark plug and coil.
Porous spots in the head created during manufacturing cause the leak. The spark plug tubes are permanently sealed into the head and are not replaceable.
If a cylinder head is replaced for this condition, mark the faulty spark plug tube before sending the head in for warranty or core so GM Engineering or the re-manufacturing facility can identify it.
But if it took 100,000 miles to finally get a check engine light for oil buildup in the hole.......
If you have not done so---
I would buy new plugs, and intake gasket on ebay or amazon...
clean out the oil, change the plugs----- put back toghether--- and drive till the light comes on again......
who knows-- maybe in another 100,000.................
Fluid in Spark Plug Tubes
March 25, 2013
A Check Engine light may be illuminated with misfire DTCs set, or a possible oil or coolant leak may be found, on some 2010-2013 Enclave, LaCrosse, CTS, SRX, Camaro, Equinox, Traverse, Acadia, Terrain; 2012-2013 Caprice PPV, Captiva, Impala; 2013 ATS and XTS models equipped with 3.0L and 3.6L (RPOs LF1, LFW, LLT, LFX) HFV6 engines. (Fig. 10)
On inspection, coolant or oil may be found in a spark plug tube. Determine if the oil or coolant is coming from the spark plug tube and not leaking into it from above. If the spark plug tube is leaking, replace the cylinder head, spark plug and coil.
Porous spots in the head created during manufacturing cause the leak. The spark plug tubes are permanently sealed into the head and are not replaceable.
If a cylinder head is replaced for this condition, mark the faulty spark plug tube before sending the head in for warranty or core so GM Engineering or the re-manufacturing facility can identify it.
My Acadia once shown oil on spark plug threads on #5 and #6 where they are located near the air intake tube. If you search in this forum, you would see some people have fixed this problem by replacing a new valve cover gasket and sealed the spark plug well tube with some high temperature sealant (must be carefully when sealing the tube as you don't want to get any sealant liquid get into the piston cylinder). Before I modified to fix my Acadia, I usually have had to clean up the air intake tube every time changing the oil at ~2.5k miles interval. I also experienced misfire. For my case, I bought and applied the air intake and upper valve cylinder spray solution. I used top tier high octane gas from Shell, Exxon, Chevron, or Quick Trip. With some other suggestion found in this forum and other GM forums, I drilled a bigger holes on the PCV Valve. Now, I see much less oil in the air intake tube compared to the past. I must say 1:20 ratio.
Drilling holes on PCV valve or breather is not the best solution. Since I experienced some rough idle, I removed the throttle body for cleaning. I found more oil accumulated in the intake manifold right after the throttle body and a lot of smoke when start-up. The bigger PCV holes allowed oil passed through and ended up on the top manifold. I finally had time to work on replacing the new valve cover gasket. This is a pain in the *** valve cover gasket job I ever had. The engine compartment design is not clever compared to some Japanese V6 that I have worked on. No wonder many people complained.
Here are my suggestion when anyone tasking this job:
1) The two 10mm bolts on the side of the power steering reservoir are hard to remove. I modified the bracket by using the Dremel's metal saw wheel to open the bracket hole downward, so next time I don't need to unscrew the bolt all the way out but just enough for me to pull the bracket up.
2) For the blood bolt as someone mentioned on the left (front) valve cover is under the lower manifold. In fact, it is not too difficult if you have a "offset" 10mm wrench. But you can only turn a little bit at a time, then manage to remove it along with the valve cover.
3) For the 2007 Acadia, when putting the manifold back, two long bolts on the back are hard to put them in. I used two locking pliers to hold these bolts and hold the gasket while putting it back. Once the manifold is in place, I just a lift it up a little to insert the front gasket. Even it helped but I still had to try many times before I could made it through.
Note: I don't need to remove the electrical fuse box as seeing in the video. I only removed the front connected hose of the PS reservoir. I kept the reservoir while working on it since I was not able to remove the back hose. If you can remove the reservoir out, it would make the job much easier. Becareful with all the cables. Once I got everything back, my car did not crank, got traction off and U0100 code failed communication with ECM/PCM. I had to trouble shoot by turning the ignition key on without engine running. Then wiggling each cable for hearing any sound. I reconnected some connectors and found cable was loosen that made a clicking sound on one of relay switch in the fuse box. It turned out the cable run into the bottom of the fuse box was loosen. The two bolts inside the fuse box had loosen contact with the cable.
Here are my suggestion when anyone tasking this job:
1) The two 10mm bolts on the side of the power steering reservoir are hard to remove. I modified the bracket by using the Dremel's metal saw wheel to open the bracket hole downward, so next time I don't need to unscrew the bolt all the way out but just enough for me to pull the bracket up.
2) For the blood bolt as someone mentioned on the left (front) valve cover is under the lower manifold. In fact, it is not too difficult if you have a "offset" 10mm wrench. But you can only turn a little bit at a time, then manage to remove it along with the valve cover.
3) For the 2007 Acadia, when putting the manifold back, two long bolts on the back are hard to put them in. I used two locking pliers to hold these bolts and hold the gasket while putting it back. Once the manifold is in place, I just a lift it up a little to insert the front gasket. Even it helped but I still had to try many times before I could made it through.
Note: I don't need to remove the electrical fuse box as seeing in the video. I only removed the front connected hose of the PS reservoir. I kept the reservoir while working on it since I was not able to remove the back hose. If you can remove the reservoir out, it would make the job much easier. Becareful with all the cables. Once I got everything back, my car did not crank, got traction off and U0100 code failed communication with ECM/PCM. I had to trouble shoot by turning the ignition key on without engine running. Then wiggling each cable for hearing any sound. I reconnected some connectors and found cable was loosen that made a clicking sound on one of relay switch in the fuse box. It turned out the cable run into the bottom of the fuse box was loosen. The two bolts inside the fuse box had loosen contact with the cable.
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