movingIIshadow

93 Civic DX

I noticed that the area under my distributor is caked in oil sludge, including the electical plugs that are right under it, which probably means my the shaft seal is leaking. I wish I would have noticed this a long time ago, but I have been busy recently.

I've noticed that the car has really been sputtering/idling badly over the past few months as well. Without taking notice to the oil leak I just tried to give it major tune-ups, but to no avail in fixing the idling problem.

So my question is this: Could the erosion and possible damage to the electrical components under the distributor cause them to fail, and cause these idling problems? I did have a CEL code 9 recently, which indicated that there might be something wrong with the crank angle sensor. There doesn't seem to be any oil getting into the actual housing of the distributor that would screw up the stuff inside it.

What are those plugs under the distributor? Particularly the cylinder shaped one directly centered under it? That one seems to have been completely caked in sludge.

schardbody

i doubt your oil leak is the culprit of the issues you are having. the plug you are talking about it a coolant temp sensor.

movingIIshadow

Really? Because I've tried so much to fix the problem and nothing seems to work. Some say its a throttle problem, so I clean out the throttle and no luck. Others say its a vacuum leak, but I would assume that a vacuum leak would cause the idle to surge, not retard. Some say its an ignition problem, and that I should get a new distributor, but I see no evidence of damage to the distributor other than this leak problem. I've replaced rotor, wires, plugs, done valve adjustments, etc. I see no evidence of oil leaking INTO the distributor, nor does the shaft feel wobbly or damaged. What the hell should I do next?? This is so frustrating.

movingIIshadow

b-b-b-bump

schardbody

you gotta explain the problem, like is the idle just rough, how is it off idle, WOT, etc... theres alot of people that can help here, just takes some info to figure stuff out.

movingIIshadow

hmm... true. Basically the idle is just rough. It doesn't surge or anything. The car starts up no problem, and runs fine until I actually get it on the road, and at the first stop I come to I notice that the idle is very low, rough, and uneven, sputtering and such. It sounds like the timing is off, but according to my timing light, its right on. If I were a daring person, I'd just get a new distributor and see if it solves the problem, but I don't want to waste 150 bucks.