if i wanted to get a new distrributor for a 94 altima does the distributor vin #'s have to match?
the guy who's fixing my car said he cant find a distributor for my car because he cant find a distributor with the same vin# as the one in my car, no other distributor will fit or work!
its is true?
You must have misunderstood or you need to find a new mechanic. All he has to concern himself with is the part number. Remco
No I did not misunderstand him. vin number/part number same thing...he told me he MUST match the numbers correctly. That it cannot be just any altima distributor for any 94 altima.
Is there a "specific" distributor I need? Or is this guy just talking out of his ass?
Do you own an altima yourself?
I own a 2000 Altima but that is basically a different car from what you have - they changed the model drastically between your car and mine. Never had a a problem with its distributor, but have had other cars that I replaced them on. Altimas are prone to have a seal fail, causing oil to find its way into the distributor, from what I hear.
VIN is the "Vehicle Identification Number" - it identifies the car as an individual. It is often a hash of manufacturer, model, make, country of MFR and serial. No VIN number is the same so by your mechanic's thinking no distributor is alike, which makes no sense:
Distributors are not finely tuned components that are very specifically made for one very particular car - a distributor, in its simplest form, just makes sure you have a spark on your plug at the right time. A manufacturer is not going to make a distributor only for one car (ie your car, but not your neighbors 94 altima) as that would cost them a fortune.
They have to be properly installed. Often when people refer to a car's timing, they refer to the position of this distributor in relation to the cam shaft. A distributor is physically turned one way or another to advance or retard the timing. That 'timing' setting is specific to a car but any distributor can do this for your car.
You can pull a distributor out of another same model 94 altima, install it properly ("set timing", see above) and it _will_ run. It just has to match the model of your car. For instance, here is a quick search for your distributor (assuming a 1994 Altima GLE):
Seriously, I'd get a second opinion. Not sure why he's making you believe that this is a very special job because it really isn't. Distributors do break and need replacing - by your mechanic's thinking, we'd eventually run out of distributors for
94 altimas which just is not true. In reality it is maybe 1/2 hour job but a fairly expensive part.What does your car do, anyway, that it needs a distributor? I take it that it does not run?
Remco
A minor point. The 2000 Altima is virtually the same car as the 1993-1997? Altima. The car looks quite different but other than the body and the interior the mechanicals of the car are basically the same. Engine, Transmissions, suspensions, and the like were not changed in any major way. Both models shared the KA24DE engine.
Really? I did not know that. It is has been a solid car, that's for sure.
The VIN is your Vehicle ID #. Often to find parts for a particular model they need to reference a particular part of the VIN which may identify where the car was built, when, etc. and that may help the parts guy decide between two or more possible part numbers.
I had a 94 but never had a distributor problem so I can't comment specifically on distributors, but I still suspect there is a "failure to communicate" problem afoot!
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