The car is not firing. There is oil on the plug number 4

ANSWER : Oil on the spark plugs is never a good sign. if the oil is on the outside of the spark plug, you probably have a leaking valve cover seal. If the oil is on the inside (business side) of the spark plug the most likely origin for the oil would be bad piston rings or bad valve stem seals. If your car really only has 18000 miles on it, it may be covered by the manufacturers warranty. You will have to go to the dealer’s service department for that. If you don’t want to go in cold, you might want to have a technician check out your car and give you an opinion as to what is wrong. Contact Your Mechanic to have a technician come out to your home or office and check out your spark plug problem and render an opinion on what it will take to solve it.

ANSWER : Hello. If you put too thick of an oil in the car, then you may have damaged the engine bearings but this should not have caused oil to get in to the spark plugs unless the oil got into the intake of the engine or one of the pistons rings broke. If you ran it without oil and then tried to put oil in thinking it would be okay after that, then you were not that lucky and broke or damaged all of the rings on the pistons. If you would like to have this looked over, a certified professional from YourMechanic can come to your car’s location to inspect the stalling issue and go over all of the relevant systems for a better diagnosis.

ANSWER : Hi there. When a spark plug has excessive oil on the plug, then there is excessive oil getting into the cylinder. This will foul out the spark plug and cause a misfire. The misfire is causing the engine to be jerky. There are three areas that cause excessive oil in the cylinder.

The oil scraper rings on the piston is worn and causing the oil to not crape down off the cylinder wall.
The Positive Crankcase Ventilation Valve (PCV) is plugged up causing the crankcase to over pressurize forcing the oil into the cylinder.
The valve guide seal on the intake valve is split or damaged causing oil to puddle up on the intake valve and being sucked in on the intake stroke.

Check the above areas and one of them will be the cause and repair to your symptom. If you need further assistance with your engine having excessive oil on the spark plugs, then seek out a professional, such as one from Your Mechanic, to help you.

ANSWER : The fuel pump will not stay on if you loose oil pressure. This is why it is shutting off. The loss of oil pressure may be from bad crankshaft bearings or camshaft bearings. The engine oil pan should be removed and the oil pump needs to be checked to ensure that you put in the pick up tube seal to the pump and connected the pump to the block. Then remove at least one main bearing cap and inspect the bearings for excessive wear and crankshaft damage. If you need some help with this, consider YourMechanic, as a certified technician can help diagnose the issue with your oil pressure firsthand and help you fix it accordingly.

ANSWER : Most older cars have oil leaks. Sealing technology has just not kept up with mechanical improvements to engines so much so that leaks often kill engines rather than mechanical problems. So, it is not unexpected at all to have an, indeed many, oil leaks on a 23 year old car. Oil leaks vary hugely in terms of severity and priority of repair. Oil leaking onto a hot engine manifold is the worst case (the oil can start a fire; at best, you are left breathing oil fumes in the cabin, as the oil burns off of the manifold) while de minimus seepage of oil at the oil drain plug or oil pan gasket, while annoying and messy, if limited enough is not an emergency. Some leaks are easy to repair, while others literally require the engine to be removed just to get physical access to all the leak points. In your circumstance, if you smell burning oil, oil is probably leaking onto a hot engine part such as the exhaust manifold. A certified Mechanic, dispatched by YourMechanic right to your location, can perform an oil leak diagnostic and then let you know of your repair options and costs.

As far as the check engine light, that is not related to the oil leak(s). If you request a check engine light diagnostic, a certified mechanic from YourMechanic would use a code scanner to retrieve the specific diagnostic trouble code(s) from your car’s PCM that have caused the check engine light to illuminate. Using those codes, the appropriate individual vehicle components or sub-systems (often a sensor, circuit, and the like) are then carefully tested, based on specifications set forth in your car’s Factory Service Manual, to pinpoint the cause of the fault or the reason why the check engine light has illuminated. Once the faulty part or component is identified, it is explained to your satisfaction and the mechanic will let you know of the cost to repair. If you have further questions or concerns, do not hesitate to re-contact YourMechanic as we are always here to help you.

ANSWER : Oil additives are not recommended by any vehicle manufacturer for any reason. Additives that purport to resolve oil leaks are useless, a waste of your money, and may result in engine damage. Every vehicle manufacturer strongly recommends against use of these materials. There is only one recommended and approved repair strategy when it comes to oil leaks: fix the leak.

You can only add the manufacturer specified amount of oil to an engine. If you add too much oil, or too little oil, that will cause engine damage. You should check the engine oil dipstick to determine if there is presently too much oil in the engine. If there is too much, the excess will have to be removed to prevent engine damage.

The leak that you are referring to can be repaired if you request an oil leak diagnostic. If you have further questions or concerns as you decide what to do, do not hesitate to re-contact YourMechanic because we want you to make the most of your repair dollars and help you get the best possible results.

ANSWER : Hi There,
It sounds like you may need to replace the oil cap o-ring. If you haven’t done this before there are two O-rings to replace; a small green one on the base of the filter cap stem and the large black one that seals the filter cap (which seems to be the one you are having issues with). The large O-ring sits in a small square-shaped groove that is at the base of the oil filter cap. It is very easy to not properly seat the large O-ring because the threads for the oil cap are quite large and will accept the O-ring if you are not careful. I would suggest having a professional from YourMechanic come to your location to take a look at your vehicle.

ANSWER : This light will usually come on when one of two things are happening. Either the motor is in fact low on oil or the oil pressure sending unit is not working properly and may be producing a faulty reading. I would recommend first, to check the actual oil level in the motor by using the dipstick. Be sure the oil level reaches the "full" mark. If this registers as "full" then you likely have a faulty oil pressure sending unit. I would recommend having an expert from YourMechanic come to your location to take a look at your vehicle to determine what may be causing your low oil pressure light to come on.