Leon Speed

How many years / kilometers (/miles)? I got new caps and rotors with a major service four years / 35.000 km ago. What is a good guideline for a stock engine?

Imo000

They last a looooooong time. Age has nothing to do with it and at 35K km, it should be still just fine. If you have concerns, take one off and have a look.

longleader

+1

NoVector

Devek maintenance schedule had check plugs at 15,000 miles and replace at 30,000 miles. Assumed it would be the same for cap/rotors.

Cheburator

The rotor caps on my race car have more than 60k kilometers on them. The car made 420bhp on the dyno, so they ignition system must be OK. I must add they are german made Bosch ones and not cheapo Chinese junk...

Mike Frye

Caps, rotors and wires last a lot longer than the plugs. I always replace all of these as soon as I get the car with quality stuff, then I don't use a service interval, I go by condition.

If I can still clean up the contacts without too much trouble I do. If there is excessive corrosion where I can tell the contact isn't going to be 100%, I replace them. I wouldn't have a problem going 10 years or 100k miles on a set of wires, caps and rotors.

Mrmerlin

I found some Bosch look a like caps and rotors on one car and the pickups inside the caps were all different lengths.
Use only Bosch parts , they should be inspected every 30K miles if they look OK then refit them.
Clean the contacts and wipe out the inside with a rag and alcohol
The biggest things to look for are cracks in the caps usually from a poor installation
IE not tighteneng the caps down evenly

Leon Speed

Ok thanks all. Looks like I could stay with these caps and rotors a bit longer. I'll take some pics and post them in a few.

Leon Speed

Some pics.

Right cap & rotor








Left cap and rotor





The cap contact points are 'burnt in'. Are those still usable? As kids we used to clean motor cycle contact points with some fine grit sand paper because we had noooo money to buy new. That still acceptable?

Mike Frye

Probably not, but I do it.

Once they get that carbon on them they couldn't be made any worse by cleaning them up with sandpaper IMO.
Like Stan said as long as the cap isn't cracked and is keeping moisture out of there you should still be good for a while.

Leon Speed

The contacts cleaned up nicely with some 240 grit sand paper. I'll let them on a little longer and see how they look end of this year.

brianrheffron

When I'm working on cars with distributors if the end
of the rotor needs cleaning I just rub it on the sidewall
of a tyre where there is a coating of fine road dirt.
Works a treat!

Brett928S2

Hi

For what its worth, because my Nitrous needs the best possible spark at all times, I change both my dizzy caps and rotor arms every 2 years ,as a daily driver thats around 18000 miles...

My plugs several times a year to different grades but that a different reason lol ..

All the best Brett