94 Civic Distributor leak

Took car to fix minor exhaust leak. While on rack the pointed out oil leak
@ distributor housing & told me I needed to replace distributor. I almost
ordered new one from autozone. Pulled rotor cap & inside was basically
dry - had a tiny bit of oil near rim by bottom bolt, but I'm thinking that
seeped in from bottom of housing as I was removing cap. After reading past
posts, I pulled cap again to check. inner Dust cap was dry & no evidence
of oil in dist. I didn't pull rotor or dust cap.

I'm thinking that the shaft seal must be fine and that the leak is likely
the O ring. The car runs fine. Any other opinions?

BTW Tegger. on '94 it looks like there is a notch in the dust cap to allow
you to use a full sized phillips on the rotor screw. I didn't try it
because I figgure why fix what ain't broke.

 

try a new O ring.
you can probably get them from a decent auto parts store.
(if the Honda dealer doesn't sell them)

 

You don't replace a distributor for an oil leak.

And an AZ replacement would be near suicide. Don't do it.

It's the O-ring that you can easily replace by pulling the entire
distributor assembly (three bolts, two connectors). The O-ring is about two
dollars at the dealer. Forget trying to locate the exact same size and
material composition at Home Depot or Lowe's or some other hardware store.
Just go to your local Honda dealer.

http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/misc/distributor-leaky-o-ring/

Put some fresh oil on the new ring before worrying it into place, and make
sure you don't twist it up as you work it in place.

See above.

Really? I need to check that out by inspecting an inmate of my local
automotive asylum...sorry..."wreckers"...sorry..."recyclers".

 

Hi - I replaced the O ring with one from the dealer. It doesn't seem like
the right one to me - right diameter , but it seems like the rubber should
be thicker - it only about half fills the channel. Also - It wasn't a
tight squeeze to get it on.
The old one was hard & brittle like plastic. Anyway, I'll keep an eye on
it & see if leak is stopped. The p/n is 30110-PA1-732 or K8A11 on the bag.
The Dist id a TD-42U.

 

Had the same problem last year and the new O-Ring fixed it on our 99
Accord.

 

the parts listing specifies a "diamagnetic" screw there, though. i
assume they mean nonmagnetic, to avoid interference with the sensors?
whoever replaced the rotor on mine last used a rotor with a springy
thing to hold it on rather than the screw, so i can't check. (the down
side of that is that the spring rusts onto the shaft nicely)

but physically i've managed to fit both a home depot metric machine
screw or a home depot allenhead cap screw without any interference
from the dust cover. the car wouldn't run and i thought it was the
above mentioned problem from a magnetic screw, so i put the old rotor
back and buttoned it up, whereupon i discovered i had just forgotten
to plug the distributor connector back in. d'oh!

 

"Diamagnetic" is a term I'd never heard of, so I did a quick Google.
First entry in the list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamagnetism

I'm guessing that diamagmetic property is in fact there in order to
avoid interference with the Hall-effect sensors inside the distributor.
Hall-effect sensors respond to magnetism, so I imagine a screw that
could inadvertently become magnetized could play havoc with the ECU's
readings.

However... I have a few used distributor screws (OEM). They all stick to
a magnet. I just tried it right now. Maybe I'm misunderstanding
something about the term "diamagnetic". Maybe the term simply means
"less magnetic than normal for a ferric material"?

That's an aftermarket rotor. Get rid of it.

Aftermarket ignition parts are damagingly garbage-ish. Aftermarket sucks
and blows both at the very same time.

Well there y'go. Glad it's fixed.

 

huh. i remembered the difference between ferromagnetic, diamanetic,
etc. from science class in high school, but assumed they just meant
nonmagnetic and translated it badly. like you I assumed so that it
wouldn't interfere with the sensor, which is right there beneath it.
so, i just today ordered one distributor screw from the dealer, for 64
cents, since i couldn't find a brass 5 mm screw at home depoo. a
special order part, that distributor screw; they must think i'm
insane. i'll confirm whether it's magnetic or not. that aftermarket
rotor doesn't so much seem to be crappily made, as crappily designed,
as proved by the spring rusting onto the distributor shaft. and it's
not like the innards of the distributor are particularly rustish. i
wish i could remember which of the varied crew of mechanics who've
been attacking the distributor installed that item. that's the kind of
thing that's making me do everything myself now to get it back to
factory specs. wherever anything on the distributor needed N screws to
hold it on, there were (N-1) screws. 2 distributor holddown screws
instead of three. 2 screws on the cap instead of three. how do you
lose a distributor cap screw? they're captive for crissake. and of
course the no-screws rotor instead of the real rotor. anyway, it's now
got a new cap, new wires, new unobtanium plugs, and the new rotor is
just waiting for the famous diamagnetic screw to arrive.

new topic, how's the headlight wiring on the teg seem to you? a few
years back, the advice of daniel stern the lighting guy around the car
groups confirmed my growing suspicions that the civic lighting
wiring was grossly undersized, so i ran some wire of the generally
recommended gauge from the battery, along with fusible links, via
relays that ran off the original headlight wiring, and damn if it
didn't make a real difference to the headlight output. i'm just
curious how the teg wires measure up, if you've thought about the
question.

 

I've also been told that Honda headlamp wiring is undersized, this being
part of the reason for my own car's rather poor forward illumination at
night (and it is pretty bad).

However, I refuse to do anything to the car that would alter the factory
wiring setup. Besides, I hardly ever drive at night, and when I do, I drive
according to my available headlight illumination, so having tallow candles
up front isn't really a problem.

What I do find to be a MAJOR problem are all those complete morons who go
around ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT with their high beams on ALL the time, even in
a well-lit city environment, and often with auxiliary lamps thrown into the
mix. This is a /very/ modern phenomenon, something you never encountered
ten years ago. Please! Turn 'em DOWN, people! Drilling laser holes through
other peoples' eyes does NOT automatically make you "safer"!

 

well, i was eager to see if it was magnetic or nonmagnetic, but there
was a third possibility; it was nonmaterial. yes, honda sent me a
sealed plastic bag full of nothing. i'm assuming it was an error, but
we'll see....

 

because it'll stick to a magnet doesn't mean it doesn't have special
magnetic properties. while i'm not sure "diamagnetic" is the correct
term, they probably want a screw that doesn't /retain/ any magnetism.
many steels, especially hardened ones, retain a magnetic field after one
has been applied. we've all magnetized things like screwdrivers, right?
if i had to guess, i'd say this screw is probably an alloy similar to a
transformer core steel which doesn't.

 

It's your headlights not the wires... the headlights are crap. There are
some solutions though. Possibly an expensive solution (with good
aesthetics) and no guarantee of "light performance" (but better than what
you have now) would be a swap out of the headlights with headlights (Euro
Code asymmetric lens, H-4 bulbs) from a European-Market Integra. An
inexpensive solution (money wise... not work wise, re brackets, wires,
relays, switches, etc.) and something with "light performance" would be to
add some hot-rod lamps (don't laugh). Aesthetics? That's a matter of
taste etc. 5 3/4" H-4 Euro Code hot-rod lamps (housings and lights with
H-4 bulbs and asymmetric lenses) can be purchased in the USA at reasonable
prices from hot-rod suppliers. They are round and have a true parabolic
reflector (unlike non-round lights which don't have a proper reflector
shape).

I have run rectangular 7"X5" Bosch (7"X5" seal beam replacements) in older
(1980's) Hondas with 55/100 watt H-4 bulbs on the regular Honda wires and
had no problems. With the 100 watt high beam... I could see clear into
next week!

The 7"X5" Bosch rectangular had only fair low beams (but were
significantly better than the original sealed beams). Adding cheap halogen
fog lights (55 watt H-3 bulbs) made the light performance (on low beam) as
good as the 7" round Cibies (H-4) and the 5 3/4" round S.E.V. Marchals
(H-4), that I used on cars from the 1970's and 1960's.

I also ran Cibie (H-1 55 watt) Super Oscars (driving lights) on some of
the cars I had in the 1970's. ****... I could drive fast at night back
then. One car I had, I installed a pair of 7" S.E.V Marchal Amplilux (H-1
low beam, H-3 high beam) headlights (the preferred headlight to use at the
24 Hours of Le Mans, back in the 1960's/1970's). Talk about cool
headlights... the high beam was independently adjustable! Never got a
chance to try and run them with 100 watt bulbs on high beam and low beam.
Just as well... 100 watt low beam bulbs would have probably been overkill,
and possibly nasty to on coming traffic (even if properly adjusted). I do
remember passing a Citroen one night on the Metropolitan, in Montreal,
back in the early 1980's, which I swear was running Amplilux's with 100
watt low beams. He was frying the concrete in front of his car with his
low beams! I couldn't believe it... he was lightin' up the road more than
me! When I passed him I checked the mirrors... his low beams were adjusted
much lower than the standard adjustment for Euro code lights (probably to
compensate for 100 watt bulbs) which meant his low beams were not
annoying, but were noticeably strong.

A problem of driving with weak headlights, and ageing eyes. Eyes age, and
oncoming headlights annoy. When driving with weak headlights, the iris of
the eyes open up, and oncoming lights annoy, younger eyes have faster
reacting irises, but oncoming lights still annoy when driving with weak
headlights.

Eyes are also drawn to light unconsciously. Humans have to consciously
look away from lights to reduce the annoyance.

Tegger, what can I say... better headlights... and knowledge about the
human body will give you the edge.

 

umm. an interesting point. the real official honda rotor screw arrived
today, and it is attracted by a magnet after all. when i saw that, i
was going to just be cynical and use the allen head cap screw i got
from home depot, since that solves the problem of trying to thread the
screw with the limited access with the dust cover in place under the
rotor, but now you make me paranoid again, and I'll have to try and
deal with the philips head.

"i wish they all could be philips head screws" -the beach boys

 

again, being attracted to a magnet is different from retaining that
magnetism.

as for access, rotate the engine until you have the rotor pointing to a
suitable access point - there is at least one position on the rotor where
you have great straight line access to that screw.

for paranoia, 89 civics come with an allen head screw [with a dab of
loctite on the threads]. find one of those in a junk yard and use that if
you're worried about the philips. i'm not sure if it's the same thread,
but i'd be surprised if it wasn't, and the beauty of the junkyard is that
you can check before leaving.

 

(M.A. Stewart) wrote in

This is different from "aging eyes", though I do possess those.

I'm convinced that somewhere around two or three years ago there was a
change in headlamp regulation or design change that results in the newest
cars having headlights and DRLs that are significantly brighter than in
previous years. Check out the DRLs on any new Chrysler product for an
extreme example (Curly even pointed this out some time ago). You can spot
those immediately in a thick stream of oncoming traffic, even in bright
sunlight.

And that modern fad of leaving your high beams on all the time -- even in
the city at night -- is NOT something I'm imagining. Even my wife has
noticed this, independently of me.

Turn 'em down, people!

 

An interesting tidbit the local radio DJs read off the wire yesterday: a
third of the drivers with high beams on in town are legally intoxicated. (I
presume the rest are clueless.)

Mike

 

Absolutely clueless. And ignorant. There was a time when one would have
been ticketed for driving with one's brights on in town, or even for having
auxiliary lamps on in town.

The other day a woman in an Explorer gave me the finger when I told her to
shut off her high beams (she also had her auxiliary lamps on). We were
going in opposite directions in stop-and-go traffic in town, so I had
plenty of time to roll my window down and tell her.