1990 300SE Dist. Cap condition?
 

Hello,
Does this cap need to be replaced? It is not cracked as far as I can tell. How do you know when it should be replaced?
THanks,
Dan

Pic 2

pic 3

The center, sprinloaded part in the center, that touches the rotor, looks pretty worn out and lots of carbon. I'd replace it.
The contacts for the individual cylinders look OK though. Replace the rotor too.

Gilly

Gilly
thanks for you input, greatly appreciated. :)

The carbon will result in "carbon tracking" where there is enough conductive dust to short the spark around to several plugs at one time. Once it get hot, it burns into place, causing crossfire and misfire.

The rest of the cap looks almost new, unlike the one I took out of the 300TE -- side contacts were almost burned off!

Peter

While you're buying a cap and rotor, I would suggest getting only Bosch parts. The quality of the Bosch over the aftermarket cap and rotor is amazing. The body of Bosch rotor looks to be ceramic, and is considerably more substantial in weight. The quality of the cap is also plainly obvious.

cam69ss

How long was this cap in the car (miles) ?

Haasman

haasman,
It has been in the car for about 3 years or about 60-70,000 miles. I replaced it and the rotor at the same time, both are Bosch.
Dan