Are Distributors History?

I had a friend of mine, who is a high-performance car mechanic, tell me that
new cars no longer use distributors, caps, rotor buttons, etc. He said that
all new cars use a coil-per-cylinder configuration coupled with a series of
engine speed/timing, air/fuel ratio, and throttle angle sensors to operate
now. Is this a fact? I drive a 1990 Civic, and my wife has a 1986 Acura
Legend, and I don't feel like walking up to some stranger with a new car and
say, "Hey, mind if I take a quick look under the hood of your new car?" If
this is true, I'd like to know how this new type of ignition works. Feel
free to post any informative URLs, if any are available.

Thanx!

Jonathan

 

Pretty much so, yeah. Such precise control is the only way to meet
newer emissions and mileage requirements.

What's to know? The spark plug needs to get a spark; instead of a
single coil and a mechanical device rotating around and feeding the
right voltage at approximately the correct time, through a bunch of
hardware which amounts to nothing more than more weak spots, each plug
gets its own coil--which is electronically triggered by the engine
computer to do its thing a the exact time required.

You've replaced mechanical bits that weren't very precise to begin with
and which are points of failure (no pun intended).

 

Back in the 50's the German auto maker DKW (later became part of Auto
Union, which is now Audi) had a 3 cylinder, two stroke engine with one
coil per cylinder. As you know, the old distributors had two different
functions. The top part, with the cap and the finger, directs the high
voltage from the coil to the right spark plug. The bottom end has the
contact points that open and close the ground circuit to the coil
primary. In the DKW, there were three sets of contact points, one for
each coil. with this setup, there is no need for the finger and
distributor cap. Each plug has its own coil.

The contact point were a big pain in the rear, they would wear out as a
result of arcing every time they broke the connection to the coil. With
this, timing and dwell would change, and you would gradually loose
performance. About 20 years ago electronic ignition started fixing this.
The contact point would only make and brake a very tiny signal current
to the electronic box, which in turn used transistors or thyristors to
turn the coil on and off. Eventually the contact point were replaced
altogether with other type sensors, usually magnetic types.

So, eliminating the top part of the distributor was tried as early as
the 50's. Eliminating the bottom part happened in the 80's. Eliminating
both parts also started to gain momentum in the 80's. I believe Saab was
one of the first companies to do this with their SDI system (Saab Direct
Ignition, not to be confused with Strategic Defense Initiative :-} ) in
the mid 80's.

In theory, the coil per cylinder is a more robust system, but there has
been problems. VW's 1.8 Turbo engines were famous for blowing coils a
few years ago. It got so bat that dealers had to raid their new car lots
to find coils to fix customers' cars under warranty, virtually no supply
of new, good coils. My friend's Infiniti has had all 6 coils replaced
under warranty. Another friend has had all 4 coils replaced under
warranty in his Renault Megane.

 

Not -all- new cars,but yes,some of them,generaly the more expensive ones
use individual coils for each spark plug,and ISTR one that shared a coil
between two plugs opposite in the firing order.The coil fired both
plugs,but one didn't matter,it was on the exhaust cycle.

You could check cars on dealers lots.They often have a hood up on some of
them.Some may even mention it on the sticker.

 

Wow..it's like talking to someone that just woke up from a 15 year coma...
;0

 

Randolph wrote:
Another friend has had all 4
Are you in Canada or somewhere outside the USA? Or how did you get a French
car into the USA? I want to bring a 2002 Peugeot 206 Quicksilver edition
into the US but have been told several times that this is virtually
impossible.

 

I'm in California, the Renault is not. My friend lives in Europe. Every
so often I read about companies that specialize in importing cars into
the US that you can't normally find here. I have never actually been
able to locate such a company. Perhaps
http://www.importexporthelp.com/importing-cars.htm can be a starting
point.

 

CaptainKrunch,

Um, I was only 9 fifteen years ago. (So yes, I'm 24) I have only recently
started being interested in auto mechanics. Of course, the only cars I work
on are my 1990 Civic and my wife's 1986 Acura Legend. BTW, I thought your
area of expertise was breakfast? Cereal, to be specific? ;-)

Jonathan

 

I was always a big fan of Seadog.