Guest Huatulco Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 (edited) Hi I am new here ... sorry for not finding you all sooner. I live in Mexico, oaxaca state and I off road every other day, but even so I am a newbie to mechanics (yes I know it's something I need to fix). The dust here is a big factor, it's in the gas, it's in the air and it's for sure what a lot of the roads around here are made of. My rig keeps stuttering when the distributor gets dust inside. I was hoping that a) someone can help me find a name for a component & that someone may know how to get around this problem Inside the distributor there is a disc or lens (I really don't know which) and it is this that gets dirty and has been scratched by the dust. Can I clean it? If so what with and how do I remove it? If not where can I get just this part, as a full distributor is expensive. Thanks guys Adìos Edited April 26, 2006 by Huatulco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94extreme Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 is this stock deal? not sure about the r50 models but i thought they just had a rotor. cap and rotors are readily available in the US.. no clue about mexico. hopefully other r50 owners will chime in. bienvenido amigo. got pics of your truck? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fordsho90 Posted April 26, 2006 Share Posted April 26, 2006 welcome south of the border Amigo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t0ast Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 I'm using a new cap and rotor from this site upon recommendation of someone: http://www.ignition-system.com/ They ship very fast, although I'm not sure how shipping to Mexico works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88pathoffroad Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 I don't see how it's getting dust inside. The distributor should be sealed completely, regardless of operating environment. There's a gasket for under the edges of the cap, is yours missing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94extreme Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 the dust he is talking about gets in even past the gaskets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FUELER Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 hola amigo, ??cuando vamos a fumar?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turbopath Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 Well, this is a very distant idea...but perhaps you could try coating the gasket with oil or RTV to make a tight seal to keep the dust out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest infinitiqx4me Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 Just put some stuff on it called, di-electric grease(i think thats the name), you can also put it on the spark pluggs as well. It help seal things up and for me keep water out, so if it can do that then I am sure your dust issue might be cured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Huatulco Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 Hi all, thanks for the replies I will try the oil between the seals 'turbopath'. I know that when I went to the Nissan dealership locally that they said the disc was scratched. Where is this disk? In the rotor or in the cap? They told me that to replce the whole thing (distributor) would cost over $500 US. Talk about upselling. Obvioulsy I don't want to do this, so any reccomendations would be good. Sorry to sound so newbie on this it's just that I have only had the pathfinder for 2 months so far. Vàmonos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vengeful Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 Hola Amigo! First question for you, do you have a service manual? It isn't very difficult to change the distributor cap & rotor, I've done it myself a couple times. However, while you're in there, you may want to consider changing the spark plug wires, and spark plugs as well, if it's really as dusty as you say. How many miles/km are on the truck? What does the air filter look like? The spark plugs are kind of a pain to do, but not overly difficult. The #6 plug gives people some trouble because it's on the back of the engine and it's kind of hard to get to. If you don't have a service manual, PM me with your email address, and I'll email you PDF files of the pages out of the Nissan Factory Service manual as well as the Hayne's Manual for your truck relating to the distributor, spark plugs and spark plug wires, and ignition system. Also, there is a possibility, that with the dust, that your fuel system has clogs in it too. The fuel filter is a distinct possibility, as well as the particulate dust collecting in the fuel injector nozzles. A fuel filter replacement and a can of Fuel Injector Cleaner would help a little, too. Adios. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t0ast Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 My guess is the "disc" is the rotor since the rotor looks sort of circular. The rotor is the thingee right above the rectangular box in the bottom, middle of the picture. The cap is the thing that all the ignition wires is connected to. I guess the other reason why the whole distributor needs to be replaced is the shaft for the rotor may be damaged and causing the rotor to not spin properly? Regardless, I think you should try a new rotor and cap first before swapping the whole distributor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88pathoffroad Posted April 28, 2006 Share Posted April 28, 2006 The "disc and sensor" they're talking about is the crank angle sensor. It uses a very thin disc with holes precision-cut into it. The disc spins with the distributor, providing the ECU with information on crankshaft position, fuel injector firing information and it calculates ignition timing advance, fuel timing and piston position for the engine. As it spins, the holes move past a LED at the bottom and a pickup sensor at the top. When the pickup sensor gets a bit of light through the hole in the disc, it signals the ECU. That's how the crank angle sensor works. That said, I can't see why there would any problems with scratches on the disc, all they would do is look bad. The light would still show through the holes as the distributor spins. Problem with the sensor itself is, Nissan decided to make it an integral part of the distributor, as far as I can tell. I vaguely remember someone telling me that they swapped one out once, but other than that what everyone else does is just plain swap out the whole distributor. A Nissan dealership charges about $500 for a distributor. The sensor is available at parts stores AFAIK for around $100, but then you have the unknown factor of whether or not you can get the old one out of the distributor... Try Ebay for a cheap distributor, or ask me, I have a couple of them laying around here I bought a few years ago just in case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPath88 Posted April 28, 2006 Share Posted April 28, 2006 (edited) is this stock deal? not sure about the r50 models but i thought they just had a rotor. cap and rotors are readily available in the US.. no clue about mexico. hopefully other r50 owners will chime in. bienvenido amigo. got pics of your truck? MZ the Disk that he is referring to is the Crank Angle Sensor... not a cheap thing to replace. I am not sure if it can be replaced separately... it maybe possible but odds are the whole distributor will need to be replaced. At least this was the case for me when a local shop incorrectly diagnosed my problems as a bad distributor/CAS Picked up a remanufactured distributor for somewhere around $200 if I remember right (discounted because I knew the parts girl ) Installed the new one and nothing changed, ran exactly the way it did before pssd EDIT: Read on Scott, read on ahead before posting -thnkboutit- I just read 88's post... oh well no harm in two posts agreeing on what the "disk" is Edited April 28, 2006 by RedPath88 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snosnk Posted April 29, 2006 Share Posted April 29, 2006 (edited) Guys, his profile says 99.5. He's got an R50. The crank angle sensor is in the top of the bell housing. Edited April 29, 2006 by snosnk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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