All,
I have a 91 Audi 200 TQ that has been eating Distributors lately. Some of you may remember one of my previous posts about the car stuttering occasionally while driving. It turned out that I had blown the head gasket, and oil had filled the distributor and 2 spark plug housings, and ate one of the wires. Got that fixed and it doesn't stutter any more, yea! When this was done, a used distributor was installed. Shortly after this work was done, around a month if memory serves, the car would crank, but wouldn't start. Took it back to the mechanic, and found out the distributor was bad, and there was oil in it again. Figured it was used, just bad luck, right? Replaced it with a rebuilt distributor. Around a week or two later, same problem, it would crank, but it wouldn't start. Took it back and put in another rebuilt distributor. Got the car back yesterday. Haven't tried it since I got it back, because I'm afraid I'll have the same problem again. I'm definitely hesitant to drive it any distance at this point because I don't want to get stranded and have a huge towing bill to get it back. My question is this, is there any thing specific I should check to see if something is shorting out and killing the distributor? Also, if I were to get stranded somewhere, is there anything I could do to get un-stranded long enough to get it back to where I need to be? I asked about push starting it (I know the owners manual says don't do this, but...) but I was told that if the distributor is bad, it won't run. Which actually leads to another question, it was running fine as I was driving it this last time, but when I turned it off, it wouldn't start again. The new one was put in and it started, the old one was put back in and it didn't, so it was definitely the distributor, but if it won't run with push starting, why wasn't I having problems before I shut it off?
TIA for any help and guidance Enjoy Bill