Oil leak into distributor cap...

[94dxhatch]

was changing out my cap and rotor and i noticed there was a small puddle of oil inside the cap. i'm guessing a seal between the distributor and engine has failed. how easy/hard is it to fix the problem?

also, if oil got on the distributor coils, what sort of problems would i be seeing? i start up fine and the car revs fine but i have a loss of power across the whole rpm range.

[Tom]

well 2 things, most likely your going to have to replace teh whole dissy, at minimum just the oring that goes on the dissy shaft that fits into the head.

[5thGenCX]

What Tom said. I'm working on a '95 EX with that same problem and I took the distributor out, cleaned it real well and put a new o-ring on the shaft, worked like a charm.

[green_ace]

yup..needs a new o-ring seal

[94dxhatch]

ok cool. couple questions.

if i have oil on the distributor or any electrical contacts, whats the best way to clean it up?

do i have to worry about being zapped by anything when i'm taking the distributor out and cleaning up the area? should i remove the negative battery cable?

[Steven.]

take the whole assembly off from the car, use electrical safe cleaner.

[madhatter256]

Disconnect the battery and wait like 15minutes just to be on the safe side. As for a way to clean it, maybe some sort of solvent like Brake Cleaner might help, although I don't know if you can use it on electrical components. It is a good degreaser.

[EgHatch93]

Brake cleaner isnt really a good item to use for this... Dunno what would be though :(

[Steven.]

brake clean is a good degreaser , leave no reside. but is highly flammable due to one of its ingredients, Toluene, witch is used in the printing industry as a solvent.

need to go to thepart store, and look for some pray that says electrical connector safe