My '94 Acclaim (2.5 w/ auto tranny; 60 k miles) suddenly died while I was driving it home today and will not restart (turns over fine). I also don't hear the 2 second electric fuel pump noise when I switch the key to the run position.
It has stored a number 11 code. I believe the distributor pick-up has died. Am I on the right track here ? Is there any test I can do to prove a bad pick-up ?
Yes you are on the right track. BUT make sure the timing belt hasnt jumped. If the belt jumped you will get the same code if the distributor does not turn. If this is the original pick up plate replace it along with a good Mopar rotor button. Make sure the distributor reluctor is not falling aparty also.
Oh horse hockey! If it has a distributor it is the 3.0 litre engine which is an INFERIOR Mitsubishi Engine. I had a 1994 Acclaim with one in it. It NEVER ran properly - escpecially during moist weather. It also PUKED oil everywhere. That engine, IMHO, is a Piece of CRAP.
I had a 1994 Grand Caravan with the 3.3 litre engine - FAR SUPERIOR design to the 3.0 mitsubishi! No "timing belt" to try and fuss with. No clunky distributor - an electronically controlled coil pack (just like GM). My 3.3 purred like a kitten - and it NEVER, I REPEAT NEVER let me down or left me stranded! EVER. It never ran "rough" - even when the O2 sensor went it still ran OK (just the occassional spit-back).
I also used to own a 1987 Cutlass Cruiser. That was the year GM introduced the electronics. That was a 2.8 litre MFI engine with a coil-pack. I was, quite frankly, SHOCKED when I opened the hood of the
1994 Acclaim, some seven years later, to find a F&cking distributor! Combine the 3.0 engine with the A604 - and you have a perfect recipe for disaster! (one of the reasons I sold the dman thing!)
I have NEVER seen an "It's-A-Shitty" engine pass 50-60K miles for durability, nor have I ever seen one that ran properly for any length of time. DC was quite wise in dumping their "It's-A-Shitty" holdings, another one of Iacocca's gaffes, along with misreading the quality of Honda products, which kicked his lousy Omni/Horizon subcompacts in the teeth.
36 years, many of them in a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership and the fact that the distributor pick-up is a common failure part tells me that is probably what is needed, not that I offered a diagnosis to begin with. Your reply was to my statement that the pick-up was technically just a crankshaft position sensor...
Welll, Charlie Nudo (aka Cholly Noodlez)'s brain problem is self-evident.
Was the pickup in the older ESC I and II systems which used the old distributor on the 318 a big failure item? I was debating changing mine out, given its age, but I've never heard of one fail on these.
I had two Chrysler products that lost the distributor pickup. The first one I replaced based on the code and the second I put an ohmeter on the leads to the distributor and wiggled the wire to the distributor. It jumped open sometimes when I wiggled the wire/cable. Replaced the pickup and no firther problems.
But why the leap backwards??? I have owned many cars over the years. Only ONE of them had a relatively "trouble free" distributor - my 1979 Malibu Classic with a 305 V8. I believe it was the High Energy Ignition. Worked like a tank, and the only thing I ever had to do was replace the distributor cap - ONCE. 5 min job.
All other distributors I had direct experience with were problematic at best! The bottom line is that they damn things wear out, and they are not easy to replace and not cheap either!
Coil packs have no physical moving parts, and so no wear! And the ECM can control PRECISELY when the engine fires! Acceleration is MUCH better since there is no lag like with the vacuum advance. No hoses to leak either! I bet emmissions are lower as well.
When you KNOW that something is vastly superior, then why not ditch the old distributor for good and use the coil pack???
I'm tellin ya right now, if I went to buy a new car off the lot and I saw a distributor on the engine, I would walk away. It's that simple.
I had a 1995 Corsica with the 3.1 - and it had a coil pack. The main improvement there was that the coil pack was on the TOP of the engine
- easy to replace if need be. The 87 Cutlass was >>
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