the oil problem is most likely caused by a leaking valve cover gasket. Start with that its cheap enough.

 

get the hitachi e coils if u get the bremi coils from the dealer this problem will reoccur. I have had hitachi coils stage 1 in my car for almost a year with no problem.

 

I have an 01 1.8t having the exact same symptoms except there was also an odd smell associated with the flashing check engine light.

I have not checked the plugs yet for oil but they were just replaced over the summer about 6k ago. One note when changing the plugs I noticed one of them was burnt but at the time had no problems with the car.

Thanks in advance!

 

Tighten down the sparkplugs? The proper torque to apply to the spark-plugs is 30newton meters or roughly 23ft-lbs, not more or less. There are too many reasons to list why not to over-torque your plugs. Google it.

The coil-pack(s) on tke1now's car most likely failed because the pool of oil that surrounds his coilpack(s) and spark-plug(s) is conductive and shorted out the coil(s). The reason that the oil is pooling up around said components, as vdubstreets states, is due to the valve-cover gasket failing.

tke1now, the oil that most likely caused your coil-pack(s) to fail, unaddressed will ultimately cause your new coil-pack(s) to fail as well. It all depends on the severity of your oil-leak. Plugs were probably fine but it never hurts to change them (you got copper plugs, right?) and you could have tried cleaning the coils with some electronics cleaner or wash and giving it a shot when there is no short but if they've never been changed before their days were numbered.

 

Sorry to bring up this subject again, but I have the same symptoms(rough idle from idle to around 2200 rpm, engine light flashing). However, when I am on the highway from 2500 rpm and up, the engine seems fine and the CEL goes off. After reading this thread, I decided to check the coilpacks and plugs. The no 1 and 2 cylinders had oil on the plugs. However, after cleaning them, I wanted to test the coilpacks individually so I removed the plugs one at a time and put them back in the coilpacks and started the engine while grounding out the plug. one by one, all the plugs seemed to be firing. My question is, if a coilpack is defective, would its plug not fire at all? Also, there is a ticking sound that seems to be coming from the passenger side of the engine, almost as if something was shorting out, almost like a bad spark plug wire on an older engine. I can change the plugs and packs, but could it be a bad injector? As I stated before, the car runs fine over 2500 rpm. Any comments?

 

Hi - where do you get the Hitachi coils (if not from the dealer).
Is this a DIY job?
Any details about the valve cover gasket?

thanks!

 

hitachis can be purchased from ecstuning.com Fairly cheap and easy to install on your own. Should only bee 10 to 20 minutes to take off the old ones and pop in the new ones. Valve cover gasket can be found here. http://www.a4mods.com/ With alot of other little things u can do to your car.