no-start after washing engine bay

[Adam A. Luy]

"...I realized I couldn't remember having replaced the distributor or rotor.  Ever.  In 8 years and 90,000 miles.  I might have done it a year or two after getting the car, but I'm not sure.

*slaps forehead*"

Whoa! Those are one of the items I change at least once a year. I know it probably doesn't matter, but I just hate to see pitting/corrosion on the conductors. Plus they're dirt cheap from AutoHausAZ.

Hope she's runnin' better now!

-Adam

-----Original Message-----
From: quattro-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:quattro-bounces at audifans.com] On Behalf Of Brett Dikeman
Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2005 10:23 PM
To: audi at humanspeakers.com
Cc: Audi List; 200q20V list mailing
Subject: Re: no-start after washing engine bay


On Sep 4, 2005, at 11:57 PM, Huw Powell wrote:

> Well, apart from the whole "undo, clean and dielectric gel" routine on 
> all connectors... from the comment above I'd say, pop off the dist. 
> cap and look at it and the rotor.  Methinks they won't be in stock 
> condition any mmore.

There was some water in it, but that's not the shocker (har har).   
You see, I have magnecore wires.  They never go bad.  The same is not true for distributors and rotors.  And as I looked at the distributor, with thick black soot all inside, the terminals corroded, and the center 'button' that rides the rotor is completely MIA...

...I realized I couldn't remember having replaced the distributor or rotor.  Ever.  In 8 years and 90,000 miles.  I might have done it a year or two after getting the car, but I'm not sure.

*slaps forehead*

Well, this explains the slightly rough idle.  And the occasional bucking when the engine's cold.  And the less-than-consistent operation under boost.  And the occasional slightly jerky driving in lower gears (sorta like a bad/dead O2 sensor, only 'faster'.)  I'm astounded the car ran at all.  This also might explain why the dyno numbers many months ago were slightly less than expected; 214-217whp peak (IA 3+).  All of which I kept meaning to look into, but never got around to.

So, I did remember having bought a replacement cap many years ago.   
After 2 minutes rummaging around in the attic, I hold in my hand a pristine 3B distributor cap.  A little work with a dremel and some 3M marine polish, and the rotor will be 'good enough' to not tear the center button on the cap to pieces before I can get a new rotor (the current rotor's surface looks like sandpaper, from getting blasted as part of a spark gap, most likely).

I wonder if my city mileage will climb out of the high 17's too? :-)

Brett
--
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/

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