We all know VW engines love to leak oil, they're marking their territory, as the legend says. So when I spotted a new leak on the left side of my engine, I thought that it was either the gas pump seal or the oil pressure sender that had a problem. But no. I noticed that my 123 ignition was oily, which I attributed to the oil being sprayed around. But no. Earlier today I opened the distributor just to see. And my jaw dropped when I saw that it was full of oil! Which clearly must travel thru the distributor's foot - though I don't know how it's made inside and if there are seals that can be replaced.
I called the French reseller I bought it from less than a year ago. They had never heard such thing. Or once, but it was a five or six years old distributor on a BMW race car. Mine is in a VW engine in a van and it takes more than 3000rpm probably twice a year. Not a race car. And my 123 is from last August and has less than 2000km. Now I have to send the dizzy in for checkup and they'll have to send it back to 123. It's a bit frustrating as it will render me bus-less for some weeks.
Anyone encountered this issue?
Almost a year later and I still have this problem. The distributor was sent back to the french importer and came back cleaned but no problem according to them. Special thanks for the importer as the distrib was out of warranty by a week. I installed it back and it started leaking again.
Suspecting too much pressure in the engine block I installed a breather box connected to the head covers - I already had one on the oil filler. I dismantled the distributor to clean it and understand how it's made. I was expecting to see some bearings and instead realised this is simpler design - not that there's anything wrong with simple. The shaft slides on two brass inserts, one at the top and one at the bottom. And it's getting some lubrication from engine oil migrating along the shaft. The shaft has a slot near the top, I guess to act as a buffer for excess oil. First 15km were fine then the oil came back as the engine got warm and we pulled the kilometres.
Now in a way I'm not very surprised that this can leak. I'm more surprised that no one else here has had the same problem. The fact that the distributor is not vertical on a VW engine probably doesn't help either.
I have a fancy billet distributor ring, I think it might (not sure) be too thick and not letting the dist sit fully fully engaged at the bottom into the drive. Its bottom cog not being pushed against the dist body, allowing more oil into the shaft. That's one way to explore.
I might dismantle it again to see if the shaft might have micro scratches that would "pump" the oil up.
Any other ideas welcomed!
Anybody here would have a photo - or at least a description - of the washers at the bottom of the 123 unit? I'm looking at a Bosch distributor and it has a metal washer and one made of some kind of composite material.
