hey audi forums so right now im kinda stuck at my uncle's house because my car threw a spark plug up the hole. I did some research on here and found that im not the only one that has had that happen before. here's a brief overview of how it went.

Monday morning driving to school half way there I slow down because a minivan in front of me was turning. as soon as I hit my gas to get back up to speed I hear a fairly loud popping sound followed by a glub glub sound. at this point I feared the worse (timing belt snapped ) but that was not the case cuz I was able to immediately limp into the nearest entrance and shut my engine off rite away mind you it did sound like it was running on 5 cylinders instead of 6. I pop the hood and find that the beauty cover over the passenger side head had been popped off so I grab my trusty multi bit screwdriver set and proceed to take the covers off. checked timing belt and it was of nice and tight (relief) and the culprit was that the number 1 spark plug shot up because it turned out that it was loose. had the car towed to my uncle's house which is the closest I can take it to since I live like 25 miles from where I broke down. now my dilemma is if I stripped the threads in the spark plug hole or not and if I did how difficult is it to tap it. I had to purchase a new set of plug wires since the one that went this morning got damaged...

thanks in advance

2001 Audi A6 Quattro Avant 175,500 miles

 

I would try to thread the plug back in. If it goes in easily you are in good shape. If not you probably need more than a simple tap. The usual repair is to insert a Helicoil insert. This requires drilling and tapping the plug hole. I think this can be done without removing the head. This was and probably still is a more common problem on forced induction engines because the cylinder pressures are so high. When I owned a turbo S6 I retorqued the plugs at every oil change.

 

How did you verify the timing belt was nice and tight? Did you take off the upper timing belt covers and verify this on the side of the road? I'm inclined to think you're referencing the serpetine belt that powers you accessories (AC, Alternator, etc) and not the timing belt that keeps the cams in line with the crank so the combustion process happens at the correct frequency per cylinder.

This seriously sounds like an ignition/timing issue. The "glub glub" sound you reference is a dead give away.

Let me know about the timing belt vs. serpetine belt bit and then I'm sure one of us could help you out further. Doesn't sound good, though.

 

oops forgot to mention that yes I did open up the timing belt covers and the belt is still on no signs of jumping or anything. the #1 spark plug was sticking out still attached to the plug wire. I did pull over immediately and shut my engine off so I didn't run it not even 10 seconds....the few seconds it took for me to pull aside and shut off it sounded like as if when running only on 5 cylinders instead of the full 6...

 

I tried threading the spark plug back in and it turns fine then its stops. I inserted a thin long screw driver in and the spark plug still wiggles so its still loose even tho it seems to be on tight by the wrench...

 

Try taking a plug out from another cylinder and see if it still wiggles. If it does then you have to re-tap it, if not, then get yourself a new spark plug.

 

update: so I went ahead and grabbed plug number 6 and swapped it over to the one that it spit up and it went in nicely. Turns out that the spark plug got stripped and thankfully not the head as it shot out. Went ahead nd had my sister and dad buy a new plug at pep boys I put it in and fired rite up like nothing happened. I already drove it home from my uncle's house (20 miles away one way) and it drove beautifully. I am going to keep a sharp eye in the next few days and also put in the new wire set I had to buy.

 

Nice call on that one, Nebuchadnezzar. (wish there's was a thumbs up smiley on here)

Glad it got sorted out with minimal expense, and headaches.

 

Glad to hear that did the trick. I was seriously concerned for you that it was going to be a timing issue that caused the plug to be tossed out like it was.

 

Better make sure you re-torque all the other plugs to spec too.