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[bill]

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

[Tony]

Oil getting into the distributor is strange. The only thought I have is that you
might have an over pressure situation with your oil. Bad oil pressure check
valve? ... Might also be related to an engine vacuum leak.

or ...

A blown head gasket. Compression pressure entering an oil journal and pushing it
up into distributor shaft.

Intermittent no-start is also tied to the crank position sensor and engine speed
sensor on the bell housing but I thought you already checked these.

Tony

bill wrote: