Oil in the spark plug well?

[06MauiBlue]

When I bought my 06 Aveo the dealership informed me that they replaced a valve cover gasket. Since the car has over 100 thousand I decided to replace the spark plugs. Upon removing the plugs one was covered in oil and a second had a bit less oil on the plug. I cleaned out all the plug wells and boots in and out before installing the new spark plugs. Could this have been from the previous leaking valve cover gasket, a clumsy oil change when adding oil or do I have another problem. I will recheck the plugs in a week to make sure everything is dry.

[RicochetRandy]

Our first gens eat valve cover gaskets for breakfast. I would buy another one just in case, seeing how they're under $20 anyway.

Dealerships, just like any other place, can be very lazy, and there's many stories on the forums of people being taken for rides. If I were you, I'd do as much work on your car by yourself as possible! Thanks to the DIY threads, there's almost nothing you can't do alone ^^

Good luck, I'm crossing my fingers that your sparkplugs will be dry!

[camopaint0707]

I had the same issue. The car just burns the extra oil dumped into the plug. I mean try to clean out as much as you can but you'll be ok.

[avguy]

Did they ask and recommend that the plugs and wires be changed? If not, that's truly dismal service because it's just about automatic to have one ore more wells with quite a bit of oil when the gasket leaks. You need to change the plug wires at some point soon because sitting in the oil bath will have done enough rotting to have misfire be lurking just around the corner.

[camopaint0707]

My plug and wire for the one plug that had oil in it is just fine.

[avguy]

My plug and wire for the one plug that had oil in it is just fine.

Doesn't always happen right away - the oil works through the rubber over time, and eventually they're not conducting as well as they need to. That exact thing happened with my daughter's '06, so I have a first-hand example of this from my own experience.

[camopaint0707]

well that's unfortunate