Thread: SR20 Distributor Cap Issue

My SR20DE+T has a weird issue with the distributor and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to what causes it. Every other month or so I have to take the distributor cap off and scrape off the nodes on the inside with a flat head screwdriver. What comes off resembles calcium deposits. If this "build up" gets bad the car will start to miss and fuel mileage will decrease. Any clues as to why this happens or how to solve it? I guess for a 20 year old engine I could be having worse problems but its just irritating.

How old is your cap and rotor, and is it aftermarket or OEM? Also how many miles are on it? That build up is a normal thing. When current flows from the coil, and out of the rotor it has to arc across to those nodes. There is a tiny gap where it arcs from rotor to node, but it will get bigger with time, and will cause pitting/buildup. I've scraped a few, but you can only do that so many times before that gap gets to big, and causes your engine to run shitty. How is your plugs, what type, and gap size? That, and your wires could all contribute as well.

Wow I was not thinking of all those variables. Makes sense though. I know the plugs are gapped right and are in good condition too. When the hesitation started that was the first place I looked. The plug wires are oe. The cap and rotor are aftermarket and probably a year and a half old. I do have a slight oil leak coming from the distributor. Would that be a contributing factor? Other than that I am golden. I am averaging 27 mpg in the city!

How old are the wires, and miles? Because all of those things wear over time like they're meant to. Wires usually last much longer than the rest though. I'd go ahead and get an OEM dist cap and rotor since you have an aftermarket, and it's that old. You can get them from GregV for around $50 shipped. There is an O-ring on the dist shaft. They will leak over time. If you're getting the other stuff get that from him too, it's cheap. Unless the oil is coming out from the inside of the dist it wouldn't be your problem. If it's just dripping from where the dist meets the head then it's the O-ring. If you order new wires NGKs are $37.33 shipped with the discount code on rock auto. IDK if greg sells them, or price?

Thanks for the info! The wires are probably 4 years old. I will look into this!