How to remove liquid from spark plug wells on Ford Focus

joesmith

joesmith

joesmith

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My engine started running rather badly, misfiring badly, at first I thought it was the ignition coil so I changed that, but that didn't fix it. It turns out there is a load of liquid in the spark plug wells. I believe it is actually screenwash, it looks and smells like it, doesn't look like coolant. Having googled the issue it appears to be a common problem where the screenwash somehow manages to end up in the spark plug wells.
I've googled the best way to remove water from the spark plug wells, but there isn't too much info on that. I don't have many tools and haven't really worked much on cars, so thought I'd ask here.
I'm planning on changing the spark plugs and ignition leads once I have removed all the fluid, hopefully it hasn't done any serious damage...
So what's the best way of removing the liquid?


Car: 2000 mk1 Ford Focus 1.8 petrol.
 
Yeah it's a common fault, nice job Ford. Remove the plug leads to give you a bit more room and you'll have to stuff some tissue down there or use a little pipette if you can't get all of it out.
 
I'd take it to an independent garage, and ask them to blast some air down there from their compressor.

Then clear all drain channels.

-edit just had a quick read, it appears Ford have since updated the washer jets design which you can get from Ford, these have a rubber seal preventing water ingress.
 
I have had a similar issue but with oil and i used kitchen roll along with a metal stick with a hook on to soak up all the fluiid. i then removed the spark plugs and gave it all a clean up with kitchen towel.
 
Compressed air usually does the trick but it has to be at a decent few bars pressure to work effectively. I use this when changing spark plugs in the bike, the front cylinder on a v-twin RSV Mille is a nightmare to get at both plugs, you can't see what you are doing and plug wrenches are awkward to use. Compressed air blasted down there does the job of cleaning out any gravel or bits of grit waiting to drop into the bores. It'll work on liquid as well. Mop up what you can with kitchen roll etc and then give it a good blast of air.
 
Mop it out as best you can with whatever, then spray a load of WD40 into the wells.

Run the engine and that will evaporate any moisture left behind.

This is how I sorted the same issue on a Fiesta last year.
 
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