So I did an 00VI swap maybe...a year and a half ago? Haven't changed the spark plugs since before that since the car doesn't get driven that much since I have been at college. Ever since the swap, I've been using 5th gen rear coils on a 5th gen valve cover and have never been able to figure out why the one coil pack wouldn't fit on the spark plug quite right. Well, today I went to change the spark plugs and stuck the socket down in the tube to take the spark plug out and it wouldn't go in far enough. So I shine a light down in there and to my horror I see extra material around the spark plug head...it would appear that whoever changed the spark plugs on my car (I forget, it's been so long) left the rubber material from the spark plug socket down in the hole. Either that or it's the rubber insulator from my OLD 4th gen coil pack. Either way, it's stuck down there. It seems to be caked to the wall of the spark plug tube and to the bottom sort of onto the spark plug itself.

I need suggestions on how to get this rubber piece out

 

have you tried one of those retreiving tools? Its a long flexible hose and when you push the button on the top a little claw extends from the bottem then when you have it around what you want to grap release the button. That may work, or you can always try to find some really long/narrow needle nose pliars.

 

I have not tried one of those, no. I don't have one, though, either. In a couple hours I am heading over to a garage/gas station owned by friends of the family and they offered to help me out. They've got way more tools than I do, so they should have one of those.

Lucky for me I put everything back together and the car runs just fine.

 

Try scraping it off with something like a long screwdriver, and then vacuum the stuff out. You can probably get a rubber tube that just fits into the spark plug tube and duct tape it to the end of a vacuum cleaner hose. (Nope, never tried it, I'm just pulling ideas out of my...wherever.)

 

I got it out! I used a tool from Advance that looks like a dental tool. It's like a foot long and has J-shaped hooks on each end. Reached in there, picked at it a little, then grabbed onto it and pulled it right out. It was stubborn though. Turns out it was the insulator from the end of my old 4th gen coil pack! Pics:





They are arranged such that they are in order of where they'd be on the car if you were looking at it from the front. The one I am holding up is the one that had the rubber insulator in it...you can tell it was making poor contact with the coil pack wire.