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3 weeks ago I bought a used 2009 Camry le last week the engine light came on and the reading said change ignition coils and spark plugs im pretty handy watched a video and ordered the plugs and coils when I removed the cover my mouth dropped the are drowned in silicone sealant I assume to keep them together what do I use and how do I remove this silicone to replace these connectors? enter image description here

GdD
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Ava
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2 Answers2

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I think your best bet is to use a sharp razor blade and split the silicone where the connector joins onto the coil. Once you've got them separate, you should be able to peel the rest of it off of the connector. While the silicone will stick to the plastic of the connector, it shouldn't completely bond to it. Other than that, you'll just have to meticulously pick at it until you can get all of it off, or at least to a condition where you can get the connector back into place.

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2
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So, it's hard to tell with the silicon covering everything, but it looks like the silicon was put there to hold the connector on, because the plastic clip that holds the connector on broken off of the connector. Like the other poster said, slicing the silicon with a razor blade across the seam between coil and connector will work to get it off, but there likely won't be anything holding it on when you put it back together. In that case, the best way to fix that would be to buy new connector harnesses (sometimes labeled as a "pigtail") for the coils, and splice them onto the old wires. But, if you want you could also just try running a zip tie through the middle of the wires, wrapping around the coil and going through the gap between the coil and bolt, which should hold it in place.

I do just want to add, too, it looks like the coil on the left in the picture has been pretty recently replaced, so it's pretty unlikely that that one needs to be replaced. It's impossible to say without knowing what your engine codes are, but seeing that on a car you just bought with a code pointing towards it being bad could be a sign of a larger issue. On the other hand the engine light could just be on from a bad connection from those damaged connectors, so you may just want to try fixing that before doing anything else. If you are able to tell me your engine codes I could give you some more specific information.

Kevin Smith
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