My mechanic says the distributor's o ring is leaking oil in my 1992 Honda Accord. How can I be sure and test it out myself to confirm? There is oil just below and to the right of the distributor on a hose that connects to the valve cover area, but it could have come from when my valve cover gasket was leaking. The car only has 45,000 miles on it and runs well. How long does the o-ring, distributor cap/rotor, and distributor itself last? When I used to own GM cars, I remember repair shops suggesting replacing the cap and rotor as part of a "tune up" but those were the old days.

 

even if the car only has 45k miles on it, it's also 17 years old.

the o-ring is real cheap, like $2-3. if it is leaking though you'll have oil on the bottom side of the distributor and leaking down to on top of the tranny just below the distributor.

 

Clean up the oil with engine degreaser and watch it everyday. 17 years with only 45K sounds like a lot of time sitting--might have dry-rotted.

 

pulling the distributor isnt difficult plus it only goes back in oneway so theres no timing probs

 

I went to the dealer today and bought one for a whopping $1.82. I'm taking my car on Sunday to a 1990-1993 Honda Accord enthusiast who will take a look at the distributor. I'll ask him to replace the o-ring as a preventative measure and then will clean/degrease the area below the distributor well. For convenience, is there anything else I should buy beforehand relative to the distributor, like a cap or rotor as preventative maintenance?

 

The distributor also can leak internally. So, I would just simply replace the entire distributor since you have to remove it off the car to replace the seals. You could also just replace the seals only, but I would replace the whole distributor.