Ouch.. new distributor

My original owner 1991 XJ started squealing a few weeks ago, I changed out the idler pulley and it still squealed. I couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from.. the AC or distributor, so I had it towed to the dealer.

It's been a several years since my favorite dealer saw the XJ... I also found out John the service writer passed away a few months ago. Nice old guy.. at first I thought he must have retired... then this young service writer told me the bad news. I hope John went peacefully.

Time sure flies when we get older... makes me stop and think about throwing the fishing poles in the back of the XJ and taking a day off from work.

anyway, back to the distributor... it cost me $350.

I had them install new wires... another $xxx.

It all came to $510.

Damn... I really love my XJ, but this is ridiculous.

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If you were making payments on a new one the $510 would easily be spend it two months (OR LESS!)

If you are spending less money a month on your OLD XJ than a new vehicle payment, you are coming out ahead.

A good portion of that was labor, we could have talked you through the R&R on here and saved you a couple of hundred bucks or more.

You still came out better than buying some new POS that will cost even more to repair someday.

Mudderoy said:

If you were making payments on a new one the $510 would easily be spend it two months (OR LESS!)

If you are spending less money a month on your OLD XJ than a new vehicle payment, you are coming out ahead.

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well I am making payments on my 2009 SRT Grand Cherokee so I can't use that math to justify my love affair... that's what I was driving when the XJ was in the shop...

I love my XJ more than my SRT... go figure.

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xjtrailrider said:

A good portion of that was labor, we could have talked you through the R&R on here and saved you a couple of hundred bucks or more.

You still came out better than buying some new POS that will cost even more to repair someday.

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I agree.. and I should called you guys for help and swapped it out myself. I do have the OEM repair manuals to refer to... its more about time than anything... and the fact I don't have four arms. Who's going to hold the flash light?

My new POS Jeep hauls azz but won't go over rocks...

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why the hell would you take it to the dealer for a distributer? and you have been arround here since 03. come on man, you should have known better! but hey, its just money right?

bchulett said:

My new POS Jeep hauls azz but won't go over rocks...

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ALL Jeeps can go over rocks, its just that the GCs don't want to!!! LMAO!!

I don't mind spending the money so much, it's that invariable they screw it up. My back was out and the 96 needed an inspection, had the Mercedes dealership patch a rust hole and replace the rear exhaust hanger. They did a basic inspection, charged $800 (welcome to Germany).
I told the guy over the phone to watch the cross member while he was messing with the exhaust. It's been banging ever since. They forgot to paint the patch they welded in. They painted the top and not the bottom.
I guess they didn't notice the tranny mount and the right engine mount are shot, the plugs, distributor cap and rotor need changing.
The dealership is thirty miles one way and they have a habit of keeping the XJ when they get it. The last time was three days, for an exhaust hanger and a hand sized patch.
I tremble to think what they would screw up replacing the right side motor mount.
What's the old saying "If you want something done right do it yourself"?

They replaced the distributor for squealing? Makes you wonder what was really wrong. The big problem I have is that sometimes you can tweak a connection or file a corner, or clean and regrease something, but the mechanic can't make money off that. He has to replace an expensive part to make it look like he did a lot of work.

I just had the EXACT same thng happen to me this morning. I was trying to pinpoint some intermittent squealing and determined it to be the distributor.

I called Clean-RC and he came over with a used distributor. We took the old one out and had the new one on in just a few minutes.

The odd thing was that the old distributor showed no signs of wear that would cause such a racket. It seemed pretty tight, which had us thinking that it could be the oil pump. And that didn't thrill me too much.

But we cranked it up and the Jeep runs perfectly. Total cost $0. Just gotta repay a favor.

winterbeater said:

They replaced the distributor for squealing? Makes you wonder what was really wrong. The big problem I have is that sometimes you can tweak a connection or file a corner, or clean and regrease something, but the mechanic can't make money off that. He has to replace an expensive part to make it look like he did a lot of work.

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The distributor has 170K miles on it.... I bet if you calculated the number of revolutions that old distributor turned since 1991, it has gone the same distance as the Apollo Lunar Module.

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The main thing is that it got fixed. And $500 isn't bad. That is the most common number for any dealer repair.

winterbeater said:

They replaced the distributor for squealing? Makes you wonder what was really wrong. The big problem I have is that sometimes you can tweak a connection or file a corner, or clean and regrease something, but the mechanic can't make money off that. He has to replace an expensive part to make it look like he did a lot of work.

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sometimes the bushing in the dist. can fail. i dont know what corners you can file to fix that.

No, that would take a new bushing in the distributor. When we used points, that was important. Of course, if it was squeeling or squeeking or whatever, polishing and greasing it would have been a free fix.