broken spark plug

[chwolf]

I have a 92 Camry. I was pulling the spark plugs and a wierd thing happened. I couldnt get the socket down over the threads. It was squishy like there was a sleave that had to be overcome before you could get to where the spark plug was. This only happened on the far left two plugs as your facing the engine compartment. Well while I was trying to overcome that sleave, the spark plug broke into pieces. Now I cant seem to get the plug out. I guess my question is, do the spark plug tubes come out or do I have to pull the head for this. Things I have tried. 1. putting tape on the end of a long shaft, got one piece out. 2.using slight preasure to possibly unscrew the tube. The only other thing I can think is to get one of those bolt retrievers. Any advise on this will really help.

[jsinton]

Yea, sounds like you broke the porcelain. There was a rubber doo-hickey around the bottom of the spark plug wire which seals around the porcelain. Find something like needle nose pliers to reach down in there and clean out the broken pieces of porcelain and the rubber washer thing. The threads and the metal part of the plug should still be there, and you should still get your socket on it and turn it. I find it hard to believe you broke the metal bottom of a spark plug. Maybe you rounded it off, but this is also unlikely. You never got you spark plug wrench all the way to the bottom.

[Camry93]

A similar thing happened to myself had to get it drilled out a helicoiled (thread insert) some shops can perform this without removing the head cost me about $175 cdn at an automotive machine shop. A trick I learned to remove stuck plugs is to use an impact gun on the lowest setting to gently jar the plugs loose instead of using torque. Use a light amount of antiseize on the new plug threads also.