my dad's car (96 honda accord lx) didn't start in the morning today . he told me he has been having this problem with the car recently . sometimes it would start and sometimes it wouldnt, so i went to take a look at it this morning . as i opened the distributor cap, there was a little bit of oil inside the cap . it wasn't dripping oil, it just had about a quarter sized amount of oil sitting inside the cap . i believe the small amount of oil inside the distributor could be causing the problem, but i was wondering if the oil leak was coming from a seal in the engine or the distributor ? i didn't have time to check so i was just wondering . and do you think the starting problem is mainly due to the starter or the distributor ?


Modified by tonezilla at 10:56 PM 11/16/2006

 

if you battery and starter good then you should be able to crank the engine, yes, no
if no fix that problem first (hint) starter.

if yes, + you have oil every where you have to fix that problem
check your spark plugs + do you have oil? yes no
if yes you have to replace it's seal

if all good still no go, then check the main relay, plug wires, plugs and everything.

 

huh, so oil on the spark plugs would cause oil to leak into the distributor ?

basically, i know that the oil is leaking through to the distributor somewhere between the camshaft and the distributor, but which seal would i need to replace if this was the problem ? or is this something else ?

 

Oil inside the dist cap means that the dist will need to be replaced.
I'm not sure this would be the cause of 'no start' though.
What about the other stuff? plugs been changed?

 

i changed the spark plugs & wires, cap & rotor, and a new battery this past summer. it doesn't seem that the oil has touched any of the electrical parts inside the distributor, from what i saw, just only the housing and the cap . but if that is not the cause of a "no start", does the problem seem to be the starter ? i dont know, i guess i'll just have to see when i get home tonight .