Petrol smell after spark plug change

lemonade · 6 Sep 2013 at 20:10

I changed my spark plugs around a week and soon after when I switched the engine on there was a very strong smell of petrol which is still persisting. Hard to say if its just at idle or not as you can't smell it on the go as it will just get absorbed in the air whilst on the move, but it is there when idle.

Could the spark plug change have caused any of this?

I did have some trouble fitting the last two as they didn't seem to hand screw in as many turns as the others, but I torqued them and seemed fine and the car is running a little smoother, so no issues with performance or any funny noises.

Cheers for any pointers or suggestions.

Fuzz · 6 Sep 2013 at 20:13

Leaned on the Injector rail maybe and made the fuel injectors leak?

miniyazz · 6 Sep 2013 at 20:25

Can put a brick on the accelerator (or someone else's foot) but doubt you'll gain much.

Orionaut · 6 Sep 2013 at 22:04

Could the spark plug change have caused any of this?

Not unless you made a complete Horlicks of it!

(Or if a new plug was faulty, which can happen but it is extremely rare these days!))

On a more serious note. Petrol smells should not be ignored. The causes of them are generally bad!!

Is the smell from the front of the car or the rear?

I did have some trouble fitting the last two as they didn't seem to hand screw in as many turns as the others, but I torqued them and seemed fine

Hmnn! that doesn't sound so good! What is the car?

lemonade · 6 Sep 2013 at 22:25

Didn't lean on the injector or anything else. Very easy access to plugs as they are right in front of rocker.

As for the smell, I'm not sure to be honest, can smell it from both front and back. Really don't understand why it would start smelling of gas after a simple plug change. Could it be that the plugs weren't tightened enough thus not burning petrol properly or even the HT leads? The HT leads required some muscly twisting to take out yet went back in with so much ease. I might try refitting them tomorrow as I'm going to change the fuel filter.

The car is a 99 Honda Accord.

bledd · 6 Sep 2013 at 22:35

Personally, I'd take the plugs out and double check them.. Then double check the leads as you reseat them

Orionaut · 6 Sep 2013 at 23:46

lemonade said:
Didn't lean on the injector or anything else. Very easy access to plugs as they are right in front of rocker.

As for the smell, I'm not sure to be honest, can smell it from both front and back. Really don't understand why it would start smelling of gas after a simple plug change. Could it be that the plugs weren't tightened enough thus not burning petrol properly or even the HT leads? The HT leads required some muscly twisting to take out yet went back in with so much ease. I might try refitting them tomorrow as I'm going to change the fuel filter.

The car is a 99 Honda Accord.

A faulty plug/lead/whatever might result in a petrolly smelling exhaust! Damage to the fuel system under the bonnet will result in a smelly front end!

Do not ignore either!

Misfires (bad plugs etc) will wreck the cat (which on a Jap car will cost!) Fuel leaks under the bonnet could easily cost a lot more! :eek:

I am a bit concerned from the earlier post that you might have cross threaded two of the plugs. this might be a red herring! But Just because you managed to torque something to the correct value # doesn't mean that you got it right!

(# It doesn't mention it in the link, but despite using the incorrect fasteners, the maintenance technician was still able to achieve the correct torque values)

lemonade · 8 Sep 2013 at 13:39

Thanks for the advice man. I rechecked them and they seem to be fine, not cross threaded, I did re-torque them and slightly more than the indicator as the accuracy is 4% off, and when i took the sparkies off they came off way too easy so weren't tight enough.

I'm pretty sure it isn't a fuel leak as I didn't have this problem before the change, or didn't notice anyway, and av not noticed any change in fuel consumption. I'm just gonna leave it as it is and just monitor if it gets worse, it is probably just running a bit rich upon start up from cold.