I have a 99 Nissan Pathfinder. In the past 5 months I have put a new distributor in it twice. The first time the car was bucking and jerking and we thought it was a miss. Changed all the spark plugs and the wires and it still did it. Took it to a mechanic and he put the distributor on it. About two months later it just died. All the dash lights came on and it wouldn't turn over. It would crank but not turn. Had it towed to the mechanic and he put a new distributor on. Today the same thing happened. I had the last distributor replaced March 30. Had it towed to the mechanic and he put another distributor on.
What is causing these to go bad?
Bad Distributor
Moderator: volvite
Pull the distributor cap and check the set screw on the rotor (it's on the backside). They can work loose (regardless of who makes them) and then everything goes to crap because the rotor starts to misalign and spin. If it is loose, use some red loctitite on the threads and put a little torque on it.
Nothing really causes them to go bad; bad aftermarket distributors have a history of poor quality control and poor reliability. I always recommend using Nissan reman distributors, but many don't use them because they are more money and you have to get them through a dealer.
That all said, it's impossible for me to say if that is what's causing your intermittent failure or not. Distributors often fail when they get hot and then start working when they cool off. Perhaps it's not the distributor that's the problem, but the crank position sensor, which also tends to fail in a similar manner? It is located on the top side of the transmission.
That all said, it's impossible for me to say if that is what's causing your intermittent failure or not. Distributors often fail when they get hot and then start working when they cool off. Perhaps it's not the distributor that's the problem, but the crank position sensor, which also tends to fail in a similar manner? It is located on the top side of the transmission.
This just happened to my son today,,again. Got out to the car, immediately pulled the distributor, sure enough the screw had backed out..again (2nd time) The 1st time we let the mechanic who installed it figure it out. He put it back together. Anyway, got it back together and it ran great. Got it home and took it apart. We will see what RED Loctite and an aggressive bite with the lockwasher will do.moymurfs wrote:Pull the distributor cap and check the set screw on the rotor (it's on the backside). They can work loose (regardless of who makes them) and then everything goes to crap because the rotor starts to misalign and spin. If it is loose, use some red loctitite on the threads and put a little torque on it.
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