My son has a 93 Accord and he had to replace the distributor because the ears/keys on the end broke off and fell into the engine. The new distributor is in and it is running fine. I even checked out his power steering and brakes (steering is stiff when turning from a dead stop or moving slow and brakes don't sink as low as they did on his truck, so he wasn't sure if they were ok) and it drove fine while I was testing them (I didn't get out on the highway) - no weird clanks or crunches. SO, my question is will those two little pieces of metal flow harmlessly through with the oil and into the oil pan where they will stay until he can drain the oil or drop the pan and fish them out OR will they cycle through the engine with the oil every time he drives it and do damage to his car? Any advice for a concerned mom? Thanks in advance

 

Did they shear off or wear off? If they sheared, what caused the failure? You could pull the valve cover and see if there are any suspect pieces of metal laying in the top of the head. If the pieces made it to the pan, they are probably there til removed, if they are laying up in the head, they could cause a problem there, lots of moving parts...

 

We think (hope) they weakened when he accidentally put it in wrong the first time. If not, we don't know. He said he had to make it go in that time. Once he flipped it around it ran for a little bit and died going down the road to the gas station. After it died and I pushed him home with my Mountie he checked and saw it (the ears) was broken and ordered another distributor. He's had to do quite a bit to it since he bought it cuz the prior owners really let it get run down. Besides the distributer, distributer cap and rotor (which they hadn't fastened down so the screws were flying around loose) he replaced the exhaust, including the cat, because they had the wrong exhaust pipes on it. He replaced the IAC, the valve cover gasket, the water pump, the timing belt, the spark plugs and wires, the belts, the fuel filter, the battery and the tires and since the sensor for the fan was broken with wires broken beyond repair he had to run a wire to the battery and a switch on the dash. He still has to get something for the tranny that's in the passenger footwell area because 4th (OD?) is flashing on the dash and it bypasses 4th gear entirely on the shifter. Sorry this was so long, but I wanted to explain just how rough of condition it was in so you'd understand that we really don't know why they broke if it wasn't putting it in wrong the first time weakening them. I was searching on here for advice because I don't want to encourage him to drive it if it'll screw it up. He loves this car.

 

Well, if no one has anything else, I guess we'll drain the oil and/or remove the oil pan and see if it's there and go from there if it isn't. Really not wanting to remove a brand new valve cover gasket and spark plug gaskets if he doesn't need to. Could a magnet extender tool reach to the head to feel around for the pieces or is it a waste of time? After all the maneuvering I did, checking the steering and brakes, fingers are crossed it got washed into the oil pan.