Honda Car Forum

Sure it can be any one of the previously listed items in the
distrubutor. But in the shops defense here was my experience:

I went through the preliminary diagnostics to determine it was
something in the distributor (power to it but not through it). Then
took the distributor off. Rotor was frozen on the shaft, cracked
coming off so new rotor required. Then the shield between the rotor
and the workings of the distributor (plastic) cracked coming off.
Then, when removing the coil terminals to do the resistance test, the
plastic insulators on the coil crumbled so new coil required, even
though it tested electrically OK. Turned out to be the igniter,
(process of elimination) but I bought the whole distributor for about
$90 with another $50 for the coil (sold separately).

I would have been better off (in time savings) to just rip the whole
thing off and replace the distributor. When it is that old and subject
to that much thermal cycling, those plastic elements just don't hold
up to remove/test/replace. The shop you used probably feels the same
way (although $400 seems high for the parts and the 30-40 minutes it
takes to diagnose, replace the whole thing and reset the timing).

On 17 Jun 2004 21:46:06 -0700, gzuckier@snail-mail.net (z) wrote:

>I recall lots of postings here about distributors going bad over the
>years. Maybe you can google them up. Things like bearings going bad,
>etc. Spit, sputter, knock like you describe is more often the sign of
>a fuel problem. Electrical problems tend to be all or nothing. Of
>course, that's a generalization that is not always true, but it's a
>first cut at diagnosis.
>
>"MrBlues" <mrblues@comcast.net> wrote in message news:<NM7xc.928$ar.328@attbi_s04>...
>> The place that I had it towed to said their diagnosis was that it was the
>> distributor. So they replaced it, and while driving it home, it started to
>> spit, sputter and knock before finally dying. So I immediately called them
>> and said what happened, well they are coming to tow it back and start over.
>> My curiosity has got me now, if it is the same problem, then they didn't
>> properly diagnose it and that replacing the distributor wasn't necessary and
>> my thinking is that if that's the case, then I shouldn't have to pay for the
>> repairs that are going to be done to fix the problem, considering I have
>> spent $400.00 on it and it isn't right....any opinions?
>>
>> Steve
>> "TCS" <The-Central-Scrutinizer@p.o.b.o.x.com> wrote in message
>> news:slrncc9lrc.ehu.The-Central-Scrutinizer@linux.client.comcast.net...
>> > On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 20:36:35 GMT, MrBlues <mrblues@comcast.net> wrote:
>> > >A distributor go bad on a 95 civic? car ran fine then went to start it
>> and
>> > >wouldn't start, turned over and all but no fire. had it towed to a garage
>> > >and they said its the distributor, the civic has like 88 k on it. just
>> > >wondering if this is common or a preview of more things to come
>> >
>> > Unless the shaft breaks in two, or the bearings jam in which case your
>> timing
>> > belt will slip and destroy half your valve train, there's not much that
>> > can go wrong with a distributor.
>> >
>> > The parts that go inside or on the distribrutor, on the other hand, can
>> and
>> > often fail: position sensor, ignitor, coil, rotor, cap.
>> >
>> > Saying "it's the distributor" is like saying "it's the engine". Fine.
>> Fix
>> > the damn thing, don't replace the entire unit.
>>
>>
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