Maybe Bad Knock Sensor / How to replace

[mnetwork]

Just out of curiosity I reached down to my knock sensor to feel it. I have been having annoying knock issues and I am running out of ideas. I reached down the knock sensor and felt it. It didn't feel wet or anything, but as I was feeling it I noticed RIGHT under the wire coming out of the knock sensor there was a little something kind of soft. How it feels I can only describe it as beeswax or dried tree sap. Also, at the very bottom of the knock sensor (the bottom of the nut end, the end that you would put a wrench) there was what seemed to be like a drop of the dried sap like stuff. It felt as if it started to drop and then dried in place. I did a headgasket and looked at the knock sensor last spring, but what I'm feeling now I wouldn't have noticed. When I looked at the sensor last year I was looking for a large amount of goo leaking out. Does this sound like my knock sensor was leaking at one time?

Another thing, how would I go about changing this without taking off the intake manifold? I tried to put an adjustable wrench in there, but there is no space to move it to loosen the sensor? How should I go about removing this thing?

 

[95fwdtsi18psi]

Sounds like RTV or something. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I honestly don't know of any tree sap like chemicals in our engine, at least I can't think of any right now. When we were rebuilding a friends 7 bolt we installed a new one, it would be hard to replace it without removing the intake manifold. I suppose if you could fit a SMALL enough ratcheting wrench maybe.

 

[lazyazzdaddy]

if you can get the car in the air it's really easy to replace it from under the car. the "stuff" your feeling is prob just the sealant the factory uses were the wire comes out of the sensor. mine had some on it as well.

 

[95fwdtsi18psi]

Yeah it would be easy if you can get it up high enough.

 

[1stGenTSi]

The knock sensor is filled with a brown goo. When the goo starts to leak out it's time to replace the sensor. I've managed to change it before without removing the intake but it's definitely not easy. It's a very large size 24mm or 27mm I think so most wrenches that big will be way too long to get at it. I used a short crescent wrench with a wide jaw. Expect to scratch your arm up pretty good.

 

[mnetwork]

I don't get how this could just be sealant. It seemes to be by the wire and have dripped to very bottom of the knock sensor... It almost seems like maybe the goo leaked out a long time ago and then dried up.

 

[spawn7037]

Trust me its sealant from the knock sensor, between my buddy and I we probably have 4 of these guys laying around all with similar problem, the sealant melted on them and leaked like you're describing, time for a new knock sensor.

 

[mnetwork]

I found a pretty short adjustable wrench with a weird angle in my basement and that worked great to get the knock sensor out. Got it out in 2 min. It seems that my knock sensor leaked out a long time ago, but I want some opinions on how it looks. Here it is...

The right bottom corner is where I said it seemed like stuff ran down and dried up and felt sappy. That is also the angle that was facing the ground.

Also, does anyone know if using a Durlast sensor would be safe?

You must be logged in to view this image or video.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.