Arrwin

Hey guys,

Managed to find a little time to take the car out for a spin yesterday night. The car started up fine with no issues. Got it up to operating temp and then increased the speed, but then I started hearing a whining/screeching sound from the rear. I took my foot off the throttle, but the sound still persisted. I got off the highway and opened the hood thinking the worse thinking a belt may have broken or something. The belts seem fine (as they are fairly new), but did notice a little bit of smoke. I saw that by the ignition plugs and/or distributor there was blue sparking (engine idle at this time). I slowly drove back home but did not hear the whining sound again, however the sparking was still happening when I got home.

My car is a 1996 with ~65k miles. What do you guys think is the problem and needs replacing? Distributor or the wires and plugs? Both?

Thanks in advance.

Robin 993DX

You should take off the distributor cap and have a look, on the old school distributor cars sometimes a crack in the distributor or a carbon build up on the inside can cause arcing from two ignition post towers.

Or maybe a boot from the ignition wire is not in all the way. Typically the torn spark plug wire is on the lower side of the car above the heat exchanger. I have never seen a broken spark plug wire top side of the engine.

Arrwin

Hi Robin,

Thanks for the quick reply! I'll check to see if the wire is fully in or not. Not sure if I know how to take the cap off, but I will see how daunting that is.

But I guess the $600 question is, it sounds like the ignition wires are probably still OK and don't need replacing as of yet?

OT question: How's the 360 treating you??

Robin 993DX

If you can get your hand in there, try to push the spark plug boot in on the rotor first to see if you have any movement. You may have to remove one of the air duct assemblies to get to both distributors.

It is hard to make any assumption without looking at it.

The Ferrari is a piece of ****! But sure sounds nice.

Arrwin

Fair enough. I will try that first and see if there is any movement.

If I have to drive it to the mechanic, would it be safe to do so?

So...I guess the idea of owning one is better than actually owning one?