I have a friend who's car seems to be having the famed distributor issue Ive been reading about. Her car stalls out when it gets warm, and wont restart for quite a while.

I have a couple of questions:

1) Since the problem is essentially caused by the o-ring not sealing properly and allowing oil into the distributor, why not replace the O-ring for a couple bucks, clean everything up, and re-use the original distributor instead of shelling out 150-200 for a new one? I mean since the car will restart and run once its cooled down, is there anything really wrong with the old one? Not being a jerk, just trying to save my friend some money.

2) Is the distributor easy to replace without messing up the timing? Ive looked over the removal/install procedure and it seems easy enough, Ive tinkered on my own cars many times, but Im used to working on newer GM cars with coil packs and computer controlled ignition timing, so distributors are somewhat new to me.

3) Can the Camshaft Position Sensor be cleaned and re-used even if the distributor isnt? Once again just trying to save some money.

4) Ive heard that the CPS itself can go bad causing the same symptoms as a bad distributor and a way to check it is to hit the distributor while the car is running and see if it dies? I read that during my searching and was wondering if there was any truth to it.

Any other tips or advice would be greatly appreciated, Im trying to help troubleshoot this car from about 500 miles away, and that doesnt make anything easier.

 

Has he pulled the dist. apart and visually checked the cap and rotor ?.... if the contacts are scored he can try to clean them up a bit and see if that works, if not buy new ones.

 

I talked to her dad about it a little while today, he said he knew about the distributor, and from the advice of another nissan forum had already changed it out. But that it was still stalling out, so he thinks it might be fuel related. I shouldve suggested the fuel filter, but I forgot. Hes already shotgunned enough parts as it is. He said he just changed out the IAC valve....which I dont understand what effect that would have a hot stalling car.

I suggested to him that it could also be the cam sensor, and it could be fuel related, but he doesnt have a gauge, so he cant check fuel pressure. What sort of pressure figures should these engines be requiring anyway?

Id love to be there to help him out more, but they live in Oklahoma, and I live in Missouri, so that makes it a bit difficult.

Ill probably get flamed for this, but he said earlier that he wanted to get rid of the stupid thing and buy a Bonneville, which I found to be a great suggestion haha. I can feel the heat from the flames already...

Please keep the ideas comin though.

 

my 96 altima has been stalling after it got warm. took it to autozone and they say its the camshaft position sensor located in the distributor. i cleaned the contacts on the cap and the check engine light went off and so i drove it around but it died as usual and the engine came back on. my air bag light has been flashing for a while also?