I just bought a 1990 Civic LX 4 door and the distributor cap had oil in it. It wasn't sprayed all over the inside of it or anything, just a little pool of oil at the bottom. What seal or gasket would be going bad to cause this to happen?

 

If you take your dizzy apart, you'll discover a rubber O ring that works like a seal at the base of your distributor...keeps oil from coming in....

 

So there may be oil going through my distributor and into my distributor cap? Well, that would explain why my cars driving like crap and the computer is throwing a code of "bad O2 sensor and bad distributor". code is 1-4-8, 1-4-8, 1-4-8...

 

You are gonna need a new distributor. Eventually it will go out. It's a pretty common thing.

 

Cool, the car's still under 1 month/1,000 mile warranty. So is the distributor seal the only seal that would allow oil to enter the distributor? The car has 155k on it.


Modified by USDMDC2NH at 6:51 AM 3/31/2004

 

yup...no other way, unless dizzy cap is loose and you spray oil in to it, hehehe