Ford Ka - plug removal, +engine light

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks
View Threaded
Sat 23 Dec 2006 22:40
Ford Ka - plug removal, +engine light - r44flyer
Hi all,

My girlfriend's Ka ('52 plate Endura, 26k miles) developed a fault that caused it to misfire etc. This was tracked down to no.1 plug leaking air from the cylinder (as it turned out it has rusted through the top of the taper) so it needed replacing. The plugs hadn't been touched since new as it was assumed they were part of the service schedule, which they are not until 30k miles, by which time they are rusted solid, anyway... I soaked them all in penetrating oil for 24hours whilst cycling the engine hot to cold to work the oil in. I put the socket on the first one and it practically fell off on its own. The same happened to the others, snapping with virtually no effort on my part.

So, the tops and centres of all the plugs are now out, leaving the threaded section of the plugs (side electrode etc) stuck in their bores, so you can see through the middle of them into the cylinder. They are rusted to the bore thread.

Can anyone suggest a suitable method for removing them? I'm not sure an easy-out will work as there's not much of the plug left for it to bite on, and it would probably chew through to the bore thread and try and remove that! Besides, if they are properly rusted to the head I doubt they will turn anyway.

So far my thinking is along the lines of tapping them out, by cutting into the backs of the plug threads progressively closer until they break up and the bits can be picked out of the bores. There's a risk I'll damage the bore threads, which I really don't want to do. I want to try and do it myself but I'm also going to weight up the cost of a bare second hand head against taking the current head to a machine shop and having them deal with the problem. I have no idea how much either is likely to cost as yet.

Finally, can anyone tell me if the engine management light can be reset by simply disconnecting the battery on these engines? Or do Ford need to stick an electro-gizmo doodad on it to do this, for a silly price?

Thanks for any advice.

Jim
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Sun 24 Dec 2006 00:26
Ford Ka - plug removal, engine light - mfarrow
Plenty of talk on here about how to remove these, here's the tip of the iceberg:

www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=46588&...f

The cheap 55 torx socket sounds like a good first bet.

--------------
Mike Farrow
Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Looking for a garage you can trust? Honest John's Good Garage Guide has thousands of reader recommended garages, plus how-to guides and tips on servicing.

The Good Garage Guide