Q – I am fit to be tied! I have given my 91 C2 the best of care. It has been running great for years in no small part due to my constant infusions of cash over the years. After 144,000 miles I expect to repair things and I try to plan ahead. I even went so far as to have the distributor belt replaced before it broke. So you can imagine how annoyed I am to find, that only 8 thousand miles after having the distributor serviced by one of the advertisers in the Panorama, the belt broke. Even worse, I am told that one of the coils has shorted out, another one is leaking oil, and the ignition module is burned out as well. The tab is over $2800.00. And if that isn’t enough, it’s my wife’s car! Now I have a rental car on top of the already mounting expense. What did I do to deserve this?! Fred
A – Do you believe in Karma? Remember that old lady that you pulled up next to in the right lane at the stop light and then smoked off the line last year? That could be it. She just got even. But seriously, I can only speculate. Without a post mortem exam on the distributor, it simply does not make sense to me either. One thing I can assure you of however, is that the likelihood of a Bosch remanufactured distributor failing is remote and if it did happen, you would not be singing the blues right now.
As far as the failure of the distributor, naturally you need to contact the company that rebuilt the distributor and see if they will “show you a little love” about your major expense. I expect that any company that wants to maintain their rep will want to make you happy. I know I would.
Although it is a little late, I would have installed a Bosch Remanufactured distributor. The advantage of having the distributor replaced with a Bosch Reman unit is clear when you know how their warranty system works. Bosch will cover the labor to diagnose, remove, and replace the distributor if it should fail within 12 months or 12,000 miles. That’s not really a very long time, or very many miles; but it would have saved you a couple thousand dollars right now.
I have found that Bosch components rarely fail. When they do, even if the damage is outside the time limit or mileage, you will get some help if the parts was installed and diagnosed by an Authorized Service Center. What the fine print won’t cover, the regional service manager often will. I once installed a brand new Bosch fuel pump that would not work, right out of the box. I sent it in, they tested it, and naturally it worked. They replaced it anyway and paid the labor as well. No other company that I have worked with offers a warranty that is this comprehensive, not Porsche certainly. In fact, if the distributor was purchased from Porsche, it is quite likely a Bosch remanufactured unit anyway, sold to Porsche directly. Even in such a case, the warranty would only cover the part, not the labor. If the part was installed by an independent, you could expect a fight to get any satisfaction from Porsche itself. The full warranty is only available through Bosch Authorized Service Centers.
As far as the coil and the module, I can’t say if Bosch would cover those components, but “goodwill” goes a long way. I speculate that the coil and module met their demise when they both overloaded. When the distributor stopped turning, the computer called for spark but it had nowhere to go. The Porsche (Bosch) coils are very robust and were designed to fire a spark that far exceeds the need of any normal engine. When spark is created, the coil is loaded with electrons and when it discharges, they had to go somewhere, probably from the coil tower to the body of the coil, or maybe to the rotor, then to ground. The coil was doomed, as was the module. Fortunately the module took the hit and the DME (Motronic computer) did not.
Fred, there was a well known VW guru named Gene Berg who once said, “buy the best and cry once.”
Disclaimer: Bosch is an original equipment manufacturer of many components used on Porsche and many other German automobiles. This is not an advertisement for the Robert Bosch Corporation, simply my experience. Many of the top shops in the nation that service Porsche cars are authorized by Bosch to sell, service, and warrant their components including many current and former advertisers in the P4.