Do mechanics only replace the whole distributor?

[PandaBear]

My 95 Corolla beater stalled yesterday (parents were driving it), stalled on the road and was towed to a local garage we trust.

It was diagnosed to be a bad distributor, but not which internal component. The mechanic said we can either pay $110 diag fee or $110 to install a new distributor (as a whole) for $300 part (Genuine Toyota New) or bring our own parts.

The price is good for the new distributor as aftermarket new is $250 or $200 reman. Just wondering why wouldn't mechanic replace only the broken part inside the distributor (i.e. the coil or control module / switch)? That would have been only $100 and the work is even less (screw driver, no need to do timing alignment).

 

[DB_Cooper]

I recall those Toyota distributors would get rusty/crunchy and not practical to rebuild. I would go with a new one from Toyota and be done.

 

[old1]

I swear nobody wants, or maybe knows how, to repair anything anymore. Just change the assembly out. I think that is the way they are taught in mechanic school. Of course, at the price of labor, maybe it would cost as much anyway? I know somebody told me that in the auto repair trade school, they aren't even taught how to rebuild engines, just put a new one in if it has internal problems.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Dig fee on a dist issue? Sounds like you're getting railroaded into a bad deal. But with an old '95 that thing is prob shot.

Doe it have a EXT coil? Assume its a DENSO. Could be IGGY SW wiring too. $110 aint too bad a price - as long as it FIXES the problem, those $$ would just pay for coil, pickup, reluctor, wires, cap rotor etc at wholesale jobber.

 

[OneEyeJack]

I went through a distributor problem with the Honda in my sig. I tried a partial rebuild that worked just fine. Then it soon failed again, new failure. I quit and installed a NOS distributor, complete. No more problems.

 

[BurrWinder]

Originally Posted By: old1
I swear nobody wants, or maybe knows how, to repair anything anymore. Just change the assembly out. I think that is the way they are taught in mechanic school. Of course, at the price of labor, maybe it would cost as much anyway?


Yes, some stuff is throwaway as far as rebuilding. Some parts are also basically priced/marketed as in it costs as much to try to piecemeal parts to repair it/factory won't sell parts separate - than it is to just buy a whole new, warrantable assembly from someone.

Some of it is sad. Some it just makes much more sense....

BurrWinder

 

[BubbaFL]

Originally Posted By: old1
I swear nobody wants, or maybe knows how, to repair anything anymore. Just change the assembly out. I think that is the way they are taught in mechanic school. Of course, at the price of labor, maybe it would cost as much anyway? I know somebody told me that in the auto repair trade school, they aren't even taught how to rebuild engines, just put a new one in if it has internal problems.


It's just economics.

Today, labor is expensive and parts are cheap. This is the opposite of the way things used to be.

It's the same amount of labor to remove and replace the assembly, no matter whether it is a brand new (presubably warrantied) assembly, or a "fixed" one with 5% new parts and 95% old parts (which could fail without warning).

If I was a mechanic, I'd probably insist on replacing the entire assembly unless the client signed a disclosure and waived any warranty.

 

[NHGUY]

If they buy a "new" distributor it will be Chinese made,and the cheap elecricals will fail quickly.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: NHGUY
If they buy a "new" distributor it will be Chinese made,and the cheap elecricals will fail quickly.


To be fair the new one is Genuine Toyota New, I haven't checked the car after parents got it back but I'd think it is either US or Japanese made, or worst case Thailand.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Dig fee on a dist issue? Sounds like you're getting railroaded into a bad deal. But with an old '95 that thing is prob shot.

Doe it have a EXT coil? Assume its a DENSO. Could be IGGY SW wiring too. $110 aint too bad a price - as long as it FIXES the problem, those $$ would just pay for coil, pickup, reluctor, wires, cap rotor etc at wholesale jobber.


The Diag fee is if you do not ask them to install anything and just take the car back (no diag fee if you pay install labor). They do have to make a living so that's fair.

I think the original distributor is Denso but I do see aftermarket Hitachi caps and rotors around rebadged as Becks Arnley.

 

[THX1138]

A few years ago we had Mercury Villager that had an erratic miss. An internet diagnosis said it was most likely the distributor bushing allowing distributor to wobble and was a common problem with high mileage Villagers. After carefully marking the rotor position and distributor housing position I removed the distributor. Bearing was crumbling from rust. IIRC, parts stores wanted hundreds for rebuilt one, and who knows what the dealer would want. I found a seller on eBay with good feedback and bought a rebuilt one for a little over a hundred. Dropped it in with new rotor and cap and problem solved. The van ran for years afterwards with no problems till a blown head gasket did it in.

It's been a long time since a had a distributor repaired. Probably my girlfriend's '67 Lemans. I think I had a new bearing pressed on at a machine shop. I can't imagine having that done today.

 

[Chris Meutsch]

I had a distributor go bad on my 1989 MX-6. Both the igniter and coil were mediocre and neither would work any longer. The igniter was replaced but didn't really solve the issue all that well so my mechanic said we should do the whole deal and the igniter cost was rolled into the overall bill.
No more issues.

 

[hansj3]

I worked on one of those recently. After working out all other issues it boiled down to a capacitor, or a can sensor.

The cost to remove the dizzy to swap the cap was almost the same as just swapping the whole thing. That's what we did. One cardone reman later and that corolla ran fine.

Honestly I'd do it at home . The dizzy can on one way

 

[ecotourist]

I had the distributor go bad on my '65 Comet. It wouldn't start. Eventually figured out that the rotor wasn't turning. Took the distributor out and discovered that a pin that kept a gear at the bottom of the shaft from rotating had fallen out. I jury rigged some sort of new pin (was in the country at the in-laws) and it worked so well I never fixed it properly!

Diagnosis and repair - nada.

Oh for the days of simple problems. But I have to admit there were lots of those simple problems.

 

[DeepFriar]

Originally Posted By: ecotourist

Oh for the days of simple problems. But I have to admit there were lots of those simple problems.


My early 70's Volvos often needed..help. The old guy who serviced them for me at the dealer would pull the distributor every time I showed up for whatever reason. He'd put it on his distributor machine and spin it up, do a full check out including advance, dwell, the whole schmalz.

Along with not rebuilding anything anymore we have also, to a large degree, lost those wonderful craftsmen who had such an affinity for machinery. One for the reasons I like the Wheeler Dealer show so much is how they still can reach out to those garage shed craftsmen in the UK.

 

[AdRock]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Dig fee on a dist issue? Sounds like you're getting railroaded into a bad deal. But with an old '95 that thing is prob shot.

Doe it have a EXT coil? Assume its a DENSO. Could be IGGY SW wiring too. $110 aint too bad a price - as long as it FIXES the problem, those $$ would just pay for coil, pickup, reluctor, wires, cap rotor etc at wholesale jobber.


The Diag fee is if you do not ask them to install anything and just take the car back (no diag fee if you pay install labor). They do have to make a living so that's fair.

I think the original distributor is Denso but I do see aftermarket Hitachi caps and rotors around rebadged as Becks Arnley.


Exactly, a diag fee isn't new and is not there to get extra manoy out of people. And as said above if you have them do the job the diag fee is put towards the final bill. Too many people want us to spend our time figuring out the problem for them so they can go buy the part and fix it themselves. So in comes the fee. Completely fair to charge.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: AdRock
Exactly, a diag fee isn't new and is not there to get extra manoy out of people. And as said above if you have them do the job the diag fee is put towards the final bill. Too many people want us to spend our time figuring out the problem for them so they can go buy the part and fix it themselves. So in comes the fee. Completely fair to charge.


Yup, unless you want us to use the diagnostic dice or the diagnostic magic 8 ball you have to pay something.

Also as far as replace versus repair, if you want to pay one of my techs $140 an hour to rebuild something, by all means go for it.

 

[Kruse]

It's simple really. If your auto tech diagnosed and replaced a single part in the distributor and fixed it, and then a year down the road another part in the distributor failed, you would go back to the tech and demand that he fix it for free.
If he replaced the whole unit with another one, and it failed within the warranty period, he can warranty the work.
But it really is a throwaway society. I tried to find a rebuild kit for my Jeep's starter about a year ago and all the local part stores just laughed at me. One owner told me that he hadn't sold any starter rebuild parts for years. I could have tried a local rebuild shop to get parts, but I avoid him because his turnaround on anything is over a month.

 

[Ethan1]

Shops make more money on labor than parts. They're suggesting replacement as an assembly because you won't be happy if they replace it piece-by-piece over the next two years

 

[Robenstein]

Your car is not like the old cars of the 60's or early 70's when a distributor was a very mechanical thing that could be easily inspected for wear and tear. The modern distributors look good even when they are bad and there is often no real clue to show one is going to fail soon.

Better to replace it as a unit. Not to mention on a good re manufactured one, if you have problems, you are not on the hook for parts. I just had this happen on my Monte Carlo. The master cylinder went out after being on the car for 3 years. I got a free replacement. Had I rebuilt it myself, I would have been on the hook for parts again plus the time to rebuild it.