I think that I know what’s going on, but I learned a very long time ago that nothing beats talking to the SME.

Therefore....... @LittlePony

The situation-

My kid has a 2009 Kia Rio.......1.6L four banger, 5 speed, 65k, decent shape overall mechanically. The car spent the first 9 years and 40k of its life in the heat of Las Vegas.

It’s been eating coil packs. I replaced the stock originals, one at a time, over the course of about 10k miles. It’s been trouble free for about a year/10k miles. In the last week, it’s eaten two of the aftermarket replacements.

The first one, like every time before, was a five minute job. Two weeks later, and the second one turned into a problem.......it would NOT come out.

At first, I couldn’t even move it. After a bit of wiggling, I could sort of twist it in the plug hole. After a bunch of wiggling, I could pull it up about 1mm.

Gripping with pliers, prying with screwdrivers. Nothing. I’m getting nervous. An hour of this. Motherfucker.

And then I simply popped it out. It just POPPED out like nothing. Ok, better lucky than good. The coil pack I pulled out has swollen up, the metal “collar” having expanded and grown by one or two millimeters. It’s obvious.

But what the fuck? @LittlePony told me a few years ago that it could be the valve cover gasket, leaking oil vapor into the plug holes, heating up and cooking my coil packs. Looking at the coil and into the plug hole makes this seem likely.

I figured the first four were old, easy to replace, whatever. I’m on round two and at $25-30 a coil, it’s annoying but five minutes. Now, it could have been a BIG FUCKING DEAL if I couldn’t get this coil out.

Time to replace the valve cover gasket? Easy job, or should I farm it out?

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