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hey, happy to be part of the forum!
just bought my first car on the weekend, (1995 GS 230,000km good shape, no rust, no accidents, runs perfect)
at my local auction for $900. couldn't of been better...

but i was just doing some check up work on her the other day and i found oil where the spark plug boot attaches to the plug, (and it sure is wayy down there i had to use four extensions on my ratchet wrench to get to the rear plugs!)
anybody had the same thing happen to theirs? im hoping someone just accidentally dripped oil in there and its not a cracked head or something! btw the car does not blow any smoke at all, at any rpm's.

thanks for any input

Hmm. Do you get bubbles in the radiator coolant? Oil in the coolant? Do a compression check, maybe. But first, clean the oil out from the plug nests and see if it comes back. What's the oil like in there? Is it clean or dirty? If it's clean, someone might have spilled it when filling, if it's dirty then it's coming from inside the engine. Granted a spill is unlikely, especially in the rear plugs. That's a bit far from the filler neck.

If there is oil in your spark plug well then dont panic.. It happens to most mx3s with higher km's. The valvecover gaskets get old and brittle and they dont bond right to the head anymore. Sometimes the oil will leak out into the spark plug wells causing your issue, its common. Change the valvecover gasket and you will be fine. Bear in mind though that changing the rear valvecover for a first timer is a real pain in the a-- as you need to remove the intake manifold.. so whether you change it is up to you, I dont find oil being there a big deal as long as you clean it out every once in awhile.

For a temporary fix, get a rag and blow the oil out with compressed air while the rag is ontop of the sparkplug well

By the way, welcome to the board!

Sounds familiar Things like that annoy me so I changed both valve cover gaskets, that was the hardest thing I'd done up to that point. It wasn't that hard either, just took me a while. Next hardest thing I did was rebuild my klze from the head gasket up! (Go for it ). The fact that the oil is ontop of the plug means its 99% just those valve cover gaskets Also when you take off your intake manifold to replace them, make sure you have some gaskets for the manifold too as these will need changed too.

Yes, my 95 leaks on the front. Gaskets are fairly easy to change, just follow the manual and apply the automotive silicone where indicated. Every Mazda I've ever owned has leaked oil one way or the other.

wow thanks for the replies everyone!

the oil was found in the front plug hole, closest to the intake box.

should i do both front and rear gaskets now?
Also should i get factory gaskets or squeeze out my own..

AND also is there any trick to getting the back plugs out or should i just grab a bigass extender from somewhere?

95klze wrote:wow thanks for the replies everyone!

the oil was found in the front plug hole, closest to the intake box.

should i do both front and rear gaskets now?
Also should i get factory gaskets or squeeze out my own..

AND also is there any trick to getting the back plugs out or should i just grab a bigass extender from somewhere?

Well you can do the gaskets if you want, the oil in the spark well is not that big of a deal. But if you are going to do the gaskets you might as well do them both right (I dont think they sell individual gaksets, must buy both). Don't do the gasket yourself, just get premade rubber ones from a parts store. As for the rear spark plugs... Long assed extensions are the way Make sure you use a good 5/16 spark plug socket that has a rubber grommet inside to catch the plug

If you read the shop manual on this it says you should put some silicone in certain areas to prevent leaks.. I have never really had any issues with not having silicone.. But here is the online manual pictures just in case:

Bottom pic:


and:

Don't forget to mind the torque for cylinder head bolts. The spec listed is in inch-pounds, not foot-pounds. Just a note.

Whisper wrote:Don't forget to mind the torque for cylinder head bolts. The spec listed is in inch-pounds, not foot-pounds. Just a note.

Thats an important note, So Ill emphasize that. Ive had retarded friends torque things down in foot punds instead of inch pounds on my things and they have never touched my car since

if your front one is gone, big chance that the back one will also be.. ( if we assume they are both replaced at the same time)

front isnt a big problem, rear is a bit more work as you also need to take of the intake manifold. but if you want to do it good, replace the front and the back, replace the intake manifold gaskets while you're at it.