Dumb question regarding coil tips

Actually, the question isn't dumb. I am...

I have been getting a misfire on Cylinder #4, so I was trying to do the thing where you flip the coil and plug into other spots. I have done this a few times over this car's 300k, but this time I got something new.

Maybe because I was doing it while the car was hot or maybe because the last time I used cheap coils, the rubber tip came off when I was pulling #4. It looks like there is a rubber tip that goes inside a longer rubber tip and those became separated. I tried pulling the one I was flipping it with apart (without putting a lot of force into it because even cheap coils aren't cheap) and it did not come apart easily, but I didn't try real hard. (My plan had been if it did, I would have flipped them anyway.)

My "solution" was to put #4 back. It screwed-down fine. Before I did that, I tried fishing around with a pair of needlenose, but only for a few seconds. I guess my hope is that screwing it down should have forced the inner tip into the outer.

Right now, I just put it back together the way it was and came inside to post this query.

Has anyone had this happen before? Maybe if I let it idle a bit, it'll get suctioned back together. If it comes out in two pieces again, does anyone have a suggestion other than needlenose?

Any thoughts, other than to buy better coils?

Thanks

 

I did not mean to ghost you for a month. Sorry.

My try with the needlenose took a small bite out of the rubber, so I ordered some hemostats and tried them, but couldn't get a good grip. It felt like I was getting ahold of it, but then it would slip out out of the hemostats.

I also got my wife to try and when that did not work, I took apart an old coil which I had marked as having not gone bad when I changed them before, popped it into the stuck rubber and put it all back together.

(Before doing this, I tested the old coil that had been in a drawer with a multimeter and it tested better than the one in the car. Of course by this time I was frustrated and the old one was from a set that had gone bad and been replaced, so it could have been on its last legs. IDK.)

Now I'm going to try again because the car is still (back to?) intermittently misfiring.

Any other suggestions as to how to get the rubber out, if the two parts did not re-fuse driving it around town? I took the cowl and everything off yesterday, but the mosquitoes got bad, so I put the rest off until today.

Thanks

 

Not really the boonies, but still Florida.

I haven't gone out there yet. Was thinking about trying to get a thin screwdriver between the rubber and the wall, sliding it around and then using the long hemostats. My reluctance before was that I didn't want to scratch the well, but I've pretty much decided that if it were to happen, it wouldn't hurt anything.

 

This afternoon, I tried running the screwdriver down and sliding it around. I even put the screwdriver in and twisted it sideways, then tried to slip the hemostats deeper into the slot it created, but they always slipped and popped off.

Then, I fell into a rabbithole of trying to figure out how many of my old coils are still good and whether the one I had taken out was good. Confusing matters, today, when I first checked the one I popped-in previously, I got a different number than I got later when t was on the workbench. I also got different numbers on the one I had taken out last month. It looks like I need to take inventory of my old coils, starting with finding out what number I'm supposed to get from the multimeter. (16.2?)

As part of this exercise, I pulled the one beside it out to see how it checked. This reminded me of how much force you need to pull them out which will probably serve me tomorrow, when I take some wire like @ASRDogman suggested. I thought I'd start by trying to simultaneously break the seal all the way around and if that (or the hook) doesn't work, I'm very open to @Tombukt2's exact knife thing.

Another thing I haven't tried is trying to grab it by the inner hole where the spring goes. I've avoided it thus far because it looks weak, but if I'm going to exacto knife it, whether the inner ring is intact wouldn't really matter, I guess.

Again, thanks for your help and I'm open to any other suggestions.

The car has been intermittently giving me a P0420 and a P0304 pretty regularly. Based on what I've read in this forum and elsewhere, I'm hoping that addressing the misfire might solve the P0420. Though I know it' is probably a longshot, but you have to start somewhere.

Thanks

 

I haven't tried removing the spark plug because there is a 2.25" rubber boot (tip) on top of it. The one I have here that I popped-off the coil I put in there isn't really collapsable on my desk with my bare hand.

 

If either of you or anyone has an answer regarding checking the coils with a multimeter... I am reluctant to put the coil back whose end I am trying to dig out and I've popped the end off of the one from my drawer that was marked as having not produced a code. That leaves me with a bunch of coils that I don't know whether or not they are good.

Several of them produce the same 16.2 number when I check using the method on YouTube, while my search to see if I can find the proper reading produces a thread from the Gen2 forum that says you can't use a multimeter to check a coil.

I would not have a problem purchasing the spark tester tool the fellow uses in this video, but I'm not finding it in the online catalog for Harbor Freight or Advance, while the other stores have it or something similar ship-to-store or like 45 minutes away.

Thanks

Edit: I ordered the tester. It is supposed to be here tomorrow. Of course something prettier than testing these half-dozen coils in Maintenance Mode, such as with a multimeter would be better, but the tool looks like it works.