jeffrwatkins

Can someone please help me!! Ok so I am probably the biggest idiot in the world. Here is the story, I have a 1998 A6 Quattro Wagon. It is in prefect shape. 164,000 miles, and in great shape runs like a CHAMP! I replaced the fuel filter, brake hoses, and a few other minor things. So I needed to change the spark plugs, I put in some real nice iridium ones. Easy change, done it a bunch of times before. Well when I was pulling out the old ones, which had not been changed in a long time, I noticed one of the old plugs had a broken side coating. Well when I pulled it out, a piece broke off and fell into the cylinder. Well the stupid side of me didn't really worry about it, and I went to start. It it started and now it runs like it's been through a war.
What did I do?? Did I totally screw my engine up? I am just a novice but I love to work on my car. Could a little piece of plastic ruin anything? Wouldn't it just crumble up and blow out the exhaust? I am pretty sick to my stomach right now so any help and advice would be awesome. Thanks!!

sl2ner

you could have bent a valve, you cant just let things fall into the cylinder and think of it should just break up and go out the exhaust. it really depends on how big it was. if it was anything bigger than a 1/8 inch i would have pulled that head and taken it out. its a pain in the *** but i would have had to do it.

jeffrwatkins

thanks everyone for your help. i ended up getting the pieces out of the cylinder by first greasing up the end of a real long cotton swab and sticking some out. i then started it without that particular plug in, and a whole bunch of carbon build up as well as a few more pieces came shooting out. it started up great, i checked the plug it was fine, and it ran fantastic. although at one red light the idle dropped pretty low. that only happened once, so if it happens again i'll look into it. so i think i am good to go until i jack something else up! thanks again.

CRAZY_RUSSIAN

tacke those plugs out and put in the corect NGKs before you dont get a bigger problem

jeffrwatkins

what makes an NGK plug better than a high end iridium Bosch plug?

CRAZY_RUSSIAN

just keep running them and youll find out ;-) first of all, Audi and VWs are picky about plugs, second of all, the plugs you installed have bean know to burn hols in pistons, melt the combustion chambers and/or melt valves. and, btw, bosch is not going to be responsible if such things happen.

Loudgoldwing

Jeff, the Russian speaks the truth. PLEASE put the 3-electrode NGK's in there.

Think of it this way. We're telling you to replace really cool, fancy and expensive plugs with something less flashy, but installed by the people at the factory when the vehicle was new. If you'd really like to know why, it's because your engine was at the tail-end of its production life at the time that irridium plugs were at the beginning of theirs. The metal of the cylinder head was cast differently than it is today.

The stock three-electrode NGK plug, while generating the same amount of heat, does so over a MUCH more dispersed area than the irridium plug you're running now. Think of it this way... Take a 1500W space heater, and a 1500W Heat Gun. Which of those would you be willing to sit with your hand in front of for 30 seconds straight? With the irridium plugs, you're going to char the center portion of your piston head, and eventually stress the metal to the point at which you will be the proud owner of a gorgeous 4,000-pound paper weight.

BOTTOM LINE:
We're advising you to do this because we have experience with these vehicles, and we want you to have the same good ownership experience as we are having. Nothing more. You're perfectly welcome to do as you see fit. We (Russian FAR more than me, as I'm an ///AMG-convert) just know about these things.

Oh, and also, pull and clean your Idle Control Valve (Idle Control Circuit). It's gummed up on the inside, and causing you standing idle issues that will only get worse with time. It's an easy job that is outlined (with photos) on www.12V.org

CRAZY_RUSSIAN

lol, thank you! yeah, we r not trying to harm your car, we are only trying to help ;-)