Distributor Cap Wear

Post by **bmdubya1198** » 23 Oct 2018, 17:56

I was looking under the hood of my '98 today for routing the lower radiator hose (it's giving me some trouble on the R with the clearance against the clutch fork) and I decided to pull the dizzy cap to check out how it looks inside, since there is a crack on the outer dust cover/casing.
No cracks in the cap itself, but all of the terminals looks a little crispy and black... not sure if that's normal or not, I'm used to coil on plug cars!
Anyway, the bottom of the dust cover looked a little melted... possibly from the oil that was on it? I'm not too concerned about that, just a little surprised that it didn't hold up too well. The cap and rotor have only been in there for 2 years/18k miles. Also interesting to note that my SKF 11809 rear cam seal is leaking on the intake side after 2 years/18k miles (replaced those a week later).

Does this look like normal wear? Should I replace the cap? It's a Bosch cap and rotor (the rotor also looks a little crusty), but I got it from Amazon, so for all I know it could be counterfeit.
And if it does look bad, is there something that would cause this excessive wear? Maybe a bad coil? The coil terminal had a little black on it.

Also, the wires currently in the car are genuine Volvo/Bougicord wires I got at the junkyard. Just realized the date code on them is from 1997 (yikes!) so I may switch back my NGK blues I had before, even though I much prefer how the Bougicords fit. Maybe the old wires are why the coil terminal looks burnt...

Pics: https://photos.app.goo.gl/e445FytpLWL9ejQy9

Post by **850 LPT** » 24 Oct 2018, 06:08

To me, that looks like normal wear on the cap and rotor for 18k. I would not worry about it if the car is running fine. The wear has to get far worse until you experience drivability problems like misfires, especially when it's humid outside.
The interval for a tune up on these is 30k, but I'm sure you know that already.

Not sure why that sleeve is melted though, I've never seen that before.

Dirk

WhatAmIDoing · Post by **WhatAmIDoing** » 24 Oct 2018, 07:07

Inside of the cap looks fine. Hard to see in your one picture, but the rotor looks like it's showing a bit more wear than I would expect based on the condition of the cap. I've never seen the outside of any cap melt.

If I can find my old cap and rotor I replaced, I will post pictures of what a well worn one looks like.

Post by **bmdubya1198** » 24 Oct 2018, 08:41

Thanks guys, I feel a little better now! But that melted cover is definitely strange. The only thing I can think is that the oil that was on there damaged the plastic, but it seems really odd that it would melt it like that. You'd think the plastic on a distributor cap of all things would be more resilient to oil/heat.