Anyone seen dizzy caps that beakdown with heat?

**naten** · 23-11-2010, 09:42 AM

Hey guys,

My daily is giving me grief and its something ive never seen before.
History: nissan bluebird (95 ka24de) daily that gets me to work, i bought a new dizzy cap as part of a service about six months ago. Soon after doing the service the car would start to cut out when hot. IE drive fine for 30 mins then cut out, start again then drive for 5mins then cut out. Eventually it would barely start/drive 10m then stop.

Once it was cool all was well again for 30mins. Took me ages to track down and figure out it was actually the aftermarket brand new dizzy cap causing this. I put the old slightly cracked original one back on and it was all good.

Two weeks ago the crack widened and i had to replace it, so not wanting to go through the pain again i sucked it up and paid for a genuine new nissan part. Fast forward two weeks and im having the exact same problem as before. Car drives perfectly for a period and then cuts out, starts again drives for a bit so on and so forth.

Anyone heard of dizzy caps breaking down due to heat? even two different brand new ones?
Or am i smoking too much crack?

cheers for any experience/advice etc
nathan

**oldcorollas** · 23-11-2010, 10:38 AM

only if the inside/outside was covered in shite (carbon etc), and the heat allowed it to conduct the sprak away from the bits it is meant to get to...

part not correct one? check dimensions

check your ignition leads with multimeter, and bend them while measuring. any variation with movement = rooted.

usually heat related ignition issues are to do with ignitor or leads, not dizzy cap.

**naten** · 23-11-2010, 10:50 AM

The new one is squeeky clean, the old one it replaced was dirty/cracked but still work up until it failed completely.

Its was a genuine part, will check the number when i get home looked identical to the other one and its not a normal dizzy cap style.

Leads are all near new, will double check them though.

Strange because last time it was definately the new dizzy cap causing the issues. Im thinking maybe the rotor button, and ill recheck the power transistor (ignitor on ka24de). I just dont want to start spending money again becuase i was caught in that trap last time and it was the friggen dizzy cap haha!

Rob had a good idea, use a hair dryer when the car is cold and heat up one component at a time and see if it fails.

**oldcorollas** · 23-11-2010, 11:29 AM

check where the button and rotor touch, perhaps the shape of the old is worn enough to reduce the contact with the new?

or there are oxides and shite on the rotor button perhaps, stopping the spark inside the dizzy?

not to do with alignment.. with the rotor/cap position not directly aligned with the spark.. ie spark occurring too early or late for the button to align with the dizzy posts?

**jonathan yee** · 23-11-2010, 11:44 AM

only time i've seen dizzy caps affected by heat is when the leads shorted out across it or something cuasing it to melt.

**allencr** · 23-11-2010, 06:18 PM

It's just an insulator, nothing you couldn't do your self if you really had to, with some cardboard & duct tape & keeping the clearances less then 5-10mm for the spark to easily jump. If the spark in the cap has been going where it shouldn't, there will be a carbon track from its path.

Does the rotor have a built in resistor, if not then that isn't it either?

**naten** · 24-11-2010, 10:02 AM

thanks for the replies guys, got out last night when it was dark to see if i could see any shorting when the problem occured.

I used a hair dryer to hear up each part, coil/power transistor etc

Im almost position now its the dizzy/dizzy cap. Ive been doing some research and it seems fairly common for the dizzys to go, they develop a oil leak and the cam position sensor in them fucks out.

I managed to acquire a manual, pulled the codes, it throws a code for the cam position sensor (it was doing the same thing last time before i changed the dizzy cap though!) Tested the dizzy off the car and it seems to be fine but that doesnt surprised me when the problem is heat related.

Im thinking ill bite the bullet and get a new dizzy

**Kenny** · 27-11-2010, 08:12 PM

This is one of the most common faults with the KA24DE in U13's it happened to me one week after I got the car

the only real fix is to replace the distributor

does the car lose power then stall? if it does you can clean the internals of the dizzy up just to get the car running but don't expect it to be reliable or be able to go long distance (Sometimes I had it running for 30 minutes no problems other times 10 minutes and it would stall)

if you want any more info on what you need to do just ask,
and you probably want to sign up to http://www.antrx.com/ they have some of the best info on U13's that I have found

**naten** · 29-11-2010, 08:05 AM

hey after doing some reading i tend to agree.

My car doesnt loose power then stall, it just goes from running fine to revs drop to zero and the reds come on, no missing or anything.

My temporary fix was to remove the black plastic cover that goes over the cam position sensor and seals off the dizzy, so now the CPS is exposed and the cap is almost open. Been working fine like this but at some point crap will get in there and shut things down completely.

I still find it strange that the dizzy cap fixed it last time.