Fun Distributor Dilemma – 97 Civic (VTEC-E/D16Y5)

[Amanda]

Okay, so has anyone seen the all-out wrong distributor put on a car?

I had a bit of a distributor squeal last week that I recognized, have had some misfiring/rough idle issues over the last month or so that I delayed getting to, and, well, my car stalled out as I was deicing last Friday and I now have a crank/no-start. I decided to swap out my ignition coil as it was probably time, and I’d be in there anyway and distributor rotor as if it wasn’t the rotor yet, it would be soon judging by that squeak (plus my distributor cap, wires and plugs for good measure as I am a little overdue for a full tune-up). Well, I get the cap off and NOTHING MATCHES. The rotor is different, how it attaches to the post is different–the post is long and exposed, with no screw to remove to free the rotor but I couldn’t get it to just pop off either, the igniter is different and inaccessible without removing the entire distributor assembly, and the whole thing just looks wrong on the inside (but the casing looks the same). I’ve looked at ETCG’s videos, other forums, Googled the heck out of it, and I came to the conclusion that either A: my car has been running on the wrong distributor since I bought it 18 months ago or B: the distributor on a 1997 Civic HX is different from all the other trim levels. I’ll grant you the HX is a slightly different animal, but I didn’t see why the distributor would be different on it vs a DX, EX, LX, what have you. So I took my shiny new parts and ran to Napa. Had them pull the correct rotor and ignition coil for my specific car, and they match what I bought, so I do indeed have the right parts. That narrows me down to conclusion A. It’s been running with the wrong distributor on it since I bought the thing. So here’s my question. Has anyone seen the flat-out WRONG distributor put on an engine before and had it run all right for an extended period of time? Just out of curiosity more than anything. Annnnd… go!

Topic

[Andrew Button]

I do see that there are 2 different distributors for that. A Tec, and Hitachi. Now whos to say whether they are interchangable. One would say yes, however if they are not, most likely due to some ecu differences, on that you will have to do some digging. Crazy as it seems, I think that it may have its own distributor for about 4 years, but that doesn’t mean another wouldn’t fit. In order to figure that out you will need information from Alldata or something else that goes into detail about that car, year, model, specifially. The craziest thing I have heard of with a distributor is one that was remanufactured wrong, and it was for smallblock chrysler 318/340/360 engine but had a reluctor inside of it for a 225 slant 6. It ran, but barely.

[Andrew Button]

Here is a diagram. According to what I find, and what you have described, you should use the hitachi, although the other one will fit. This picture maybe off a little, but should give a better idea of what to look for. The Tec does crosses over part number wise, for whatever the reason though.

Attachments:

• dist.png

[HondaDNA]

The distributor for the Hx D16Y5 is different from the rest of the Civic line up

[Author]

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