Here is something that I think will help many here.
One of the maintenance tasks I did was replacing coils and plugs. Easy enough.
After replacing the parts, and while tightening the eTorx ignition coil bolts (aluminum), I was not careful and snapped bolt on cylinder 3. BTW, its 3ft/lbs +90˚ (but with SMALL wrench, not 3/8)
Since coils sit there pretty well, I left it as is until I got the bolt and had time to remove/replace (I do have some tips for removing the snapped part of the bolt - really easy actually - will post in another thread).

Anyways, today was the day.
I removed the covers, exposed wires, removed all bolts, then pulled on the ignition coil #3. Would not budge initially.
Applied more force, and started wiggling. Eventually coil started moving and popped up.
To my surprise, only the coil came up, the rubber boot got stuck on the ceramic part of spark plug. It is not coming out.
Used needle nose pliers to lift it. Nope.
Used a 90K sharp tool to poke hole in boot to lift - Nope as well.
Twisted.
Rotated.
Pushed.
Pulled.
Prayed.
Nothing worked.
Contemplated torching. Good thing did not do this one..lol.

Then, thought, why not think like a spark plug? What if a rubber boot got stuck on me? How would it get stuck on me? What would cause that?
Once stuck, what would work if I was in a tight space?

Then it hit me. Need something to lubricate the rubber to help ease rubber off the plug.
To put the lube between plug and boot, I would need something to separate them.
So while looking in my junk drawer of tool box, found a used metal band clamp, with a thin long end.
Perfect to slide into the plug hole, right next to the plug ceramic, and try separate the rubber.

Took the band out, flattened out and with a little lube, managed to separate one area, removed, inserted again just a bit over to one side, so I can separate another bit.
Continued for a little until I thought I have decent amount of rubber separated and lubed (thought about 75% around the circle).
Grabbed my small and long needle nose pliers, pulled on the rubber, and the whole thing came up without any effort at all.

Total job after I got the idea - about 5 minutes.
Before that, I watched videos, and many showed all kinds of fancy bits/sockets, made tools, to try budge the rubber. Typical job about 3 hours.

I am sure glad I thought of this and want to pass on to others, so they don't waste 3 hours of their life, trying to move a small piece of black rubber out of a small hole.
Good luck and let me know what you think or if you have additional comments.

 

You've been a busy boy. :-)

 

Yes, whenever I choose to do a small tiny thing on this Pan or the Cayenne, it always turns into a whole bunch of other things, must be me.

 

Ciaka,
You are really handy person, buddy. You think like an engineer. So proud of you, buddy. I did my spark-plug @ 40K on my Cay and Spark plug my friend 2014 PAN4S @ 40k. Over maintenance and way earlier. We did not run into rubber boot separation, we put a silicon gel around ceramic body of spark plug to avoid the sticky in the near future. Plan to do Spark-plug on my 2016 PAN later next year 40K miles , LOL ...
Have a great weekend and keep your PTS on the top condition ...

 

will do buddy. Thanks. (yes, engineer)...lol

 

Could you have put the spark plug socket over boot and removed plug and boot?
Just did my plugs and did not run into that issue.

 

Unfortunately no. The socker will not fit over spark plug while the boot is on the plug. Will not fit under boot, will not fit over boot.
What I showed was the only quick and easy way I found. Sometimes the boot will adhere to the plug due to heat. Even if you put lubricant under, hear evaporates it and you still deal with it.
Does not happen often, but when it does, you will love this thread. Just trust me.

 

LOL ... Ciaka did a good job to remove the rubber. I save this DIY in case in the future.

 

I have encountered the same issue on my second plug when performing 115k maintenance on my 2014 Audi Q5 3.0. I've done plugs on several different brands including Hondas
​​and Toyotas having encountered other challenges but nothing like this where I had to use all of my might to get the coil pack out. I didn't have a pick long enough to pull out the ripped rubber gasket (or a spare coil pack)so I had to put the ​coil pack back in place. When doing a test drive I got am EPC (electronic power control) light on and it's running rough. I've ordered 2 genuine coil packs and suspect that I will encounter the same issue on the other 4 plugs. Would it be best to order all new coil packs at some point and replace seeing how they are all proving difficult? I've always used dielectric grease on the coil pack when reinstalling. Would this have prevented this problem? Last question, what spray did you use or could be used to free the rubber gasket? Thanks in advance.

 

I would say if u got the $, get the could packs otherwise replace only those you know fail.
to free my boot I used thin flat wire as in pics and slid it between plug and boot, to open a gap. Then used any light oil or even w40, to put few drops into gap. Then used flat wire to walk around plug to separate stuck rubber from plug. Oil lubricated and allowed me to pull rubber boot out easy.

 

Hopefully my shipment comes in tomorrow and I'll give it a whirl. Thanks again for your post and quick reply. Much appreciated.

 

Thank you Ciaka for solving this problem. I have a similar problem to my 2014 Cayenne. The black rubber separated from the coil when I pulled the coil out. The rubber stuck in the spark plug, I sprayed WD40 around the rubber and plug, used a long small flat screw to loose the rubber. With my handmade tool, I was able to pull it out successfully. Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the coil. Here is my hook.

Now I understand that 60K miles I have to replace to coil and plug due the heat degradation of the coil and rubber attached to the plug.

 

I’d take the opportunity to replace all your plugs and coil packs. They aren’t expensive and they crack (recently done mine - two out of 8 were cracked, which was causing random misfires).
(both cracked ones were version -10. I believe the latest is 14).

 

From past experience with older non-Porsche cars I found dielectric grease causes sticking and difficulty removing. (Yet I still use it sometimes silly me).

Just one suggestion, especially if you plan on reusing the coil pack, use a more rubber friendly silicone lube vs WD-40...

 

Good job. Yes 60k is your replacement from what I remember. Coils come with these boot, the stuck ones get chucked.
and yes, using grease to prevent sticking, will get you stuck. Ask how I know...lol