HELP! Spark Plug wire not fitting in!?

Below is my original message. See my next post dated Jan 13 regarding the cylinder...
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Hi. I'm not much of a do-it-yourselfer... but my 91 CRX (dx) started making an engine knock a few weeks ago. It got progressively louder over time. I finally checked under the hood yesterday to find that one of my sparkplug "wire plugs" is sticking up about 1/2".

To be clearer, I'm referring to the part that goes into the chamber with the spark plug, and at the top there's a rubber cap that's supposed to fit snugly and close the plug chamber.

I have no idea how this part would have popped up, and I try as I can I CANNOT get it to fit in like it should. I even took out one of the other cable plugs and put it in that chamber to see how it fit, and it also won't go in all the way. So that tells me the problem is not the cable plug, but it's something in there that's not allowing the plug to fit in correctly anymore. I checked with a flashlight and all looks ok to me...

Any ideas?

The last work I've had done to the car was an alternator re-build about 6 weeks ago, and a minor tune-up/inspection 7 weeks ago.

Weird thing is, the car runs GREAT. It accelerates as well as the day I bought it in '94. Just making a knocking noise...

~RB

sounds to me like the rubber boot at the end of the plug wire got stuck to the spark plug....take a screw driver and try freeing it from the plug.

Ya, could be the boot - if not, try taking out the plug and see if there is anything funky going on. I've had the boots come off myself - they're a pain.

Something funky's going on all right... imagine my horror when today I noticed a weird bump on my hood. A bump shaped pretty much like the top of the sparkplug cap. I think a cylinder blew! How the f*** is that possible? I drive normally and had the timing belt changed 3 months ago. The engine is stock, well-cared for, and only 138,000 miles on it! What could have caused this?

I'm gonna go cry in a corner now... heh ;-)

Welp SOMETHING was definitely wrong with the sparkplug, but replacing them all fixed the problem. Everything's snug and running smooth now.

Why a bump in the hood? No idea. Could be caused by the flashlight I forgot inside the engine compartment!!!!