02 Chevy

[Wingnut]

I have a buddy with an 02 SWB reg cab kickstart (bare bones 4.3) truck. He just called me to ask for a ride home for the third time in as many months.

 

His distributor is fried again. Last time I pulled it off before the tow truck came, and everything inside was junk.

 

There is a guy here at work that has been through 4 of them on his 02.

 

Is this common? Anyone know of the cause? TSB? Recall? Anything? He drives like a grandma, and never tows or hauls anything more than my fat butt.

 

Luckily he still has about 14k left on his warranty. But he can't be handing over his keys once or twice per month to the stealership. They don't seem to think they need to look for other problems, just put a new one on, and send him on his not so merry way.

 

Any suggestions?

 

-Nut

[seadoons]

tell him to start looking into the lemon laws...

[Wingnut]

tell him to start looking into the lemon laws...

Kind of a bad idea...His dad works for GM, and would disown him if he pursued something like that....No more GM discount

[Rotorwrench]

I've read some posts that the A/C line that runs over the distributer drips condensation and fries them.

[sjspor]

I've all ready replaced two caps and rotors.. The first one i did'nt get to see inside, because the truck dropped dead and was towed. The service writer told me that there was "black goo" inside the cap. That was around 17K.

 

At home I was looking around and indeed, the air conditiong suction line runs right over the top of the cap. I wraped the line in Foil covered foam.

 

Around 37K I started getting ignition noise on the radio, the truck missed a couple of times and set the mil lamp, so I figured I had been warned. I put a new cap and rotor on, and the inside of this one had lots of dry brown crunchy debris, and the contact from the rotor to the cap was pitted and burnt.

 

I plan on replacing it again before the end of summer, but I have the old one in the truck now with the tools to change it.

 

I hav'nt been able to find a good high qualilty replacement, I'd love to get like an excel or something along those lines. So while mine has gone bad, not nearly as bad as your friends that keeps going.

 

If you discover the root cause... let me know. I have an 02 ext cab with the 4.3,

some have even doubted I have a cap and rotor...

[seadoons]

I guess that would be a bad idea to pursue GM in that manner if your dad works for them...

[SilveradoWV]

The AC line sounds like a good assumption to me. But our '91 350 fried about 3 distributor caps in 3 weeks one time! Everytime we would buy a cheap one it would last no time. The last one I bought was a Conrad I believe and it has been on there for a long time.

[SilveradoWV]

Well the Conrad is out today, truck had been running rough and loss of acceleration lately and I believe that was the problem. Put an Eccel on this time and it is very smooth now and accelerates good! The Conrad lasted 22,000 miles, the one before that )not sure what brand) lasted 27,000 miles, and the one before that one lasted 7,000 miles (it was a Wells, cheapest one they had and was a big mistake). Ever since the wells I have put the best I could find on but should they last longer than 20000 or so miles?

[Wingnut]

My buddy got his truck back this morning. The stealer "couldn't duplicate the problem", and said that his distributor is fine.

 

He just called me, and said that he can't break 10 mph. HE JUST GOT IT BACK! I havn't looked at it yet, but from what he is describing, it's starving for fuel. It has had a new fuel pump, new distributor, about three new fuel filters, and new injectors on previous warranty work.

 

I guess I will look at it this weekend, and then go with him to the stealer on Monday...He isn't exactly a "people person", and needs all the help he can get with the service dept. manager.

 

Any other suggestions?

[MarkD]

Could the cam be "walking?"

[Wingnut]

Could the cam be "walking?"

On an 02 with less than 25k miles? I doubt it.

[SilveradoWV]

Has he changed plug wires??? Yeah I am still thinking its a stupid theory but here goes. As I said above the '91 K1500 350 has been frying dist caps. well I went through the maintenance records and when we got the truck it had 67,000 miles. At 109,000 miles we changed plug wires, 3,000 miles later we fried dist cap #1 (the one that was on it at 67,000; quite possibly the factory one). 7,000 miles later dist cap #2 was out. Then it was 27,000 miles later #3 was out, and 22,000 miles #4 was out and that brings us to right now! Just a thought I had about my problem, not trying to take away your thread!