In the family we have a 1997 Silverado 4WD pickup with small block 350. It has what we've been told is a distributor cap and rotor that was only used one year because they were suseptible to drawing mositure and often failed. That seems to be exactly the case; hardly get 15,000 miles out of a set. (This is the flat top cap with opposing plug towers) We also heard this problem almost triggered a factory recall, but didn't.

Is this typical?

For those of you with the same situation, have you found any answers other than just buying new caps and rotors frequently?

ANY thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Dennis in E WA state

 

This is a bad design from GM and the main problem is the AC line over top of it. Take some foam pipe insulation and put it around the line split up and take a couple of zip ties and secure the foam around the line this will allow the moisture to accumulate in the insul;ation and run out the ends of it instead of directly on the cap. Also I advise to buy the AC delco caps compared to aftermarket the aftermarket caps do not have the same plastic and allow crossfires. I went through this on my 97 Tahoe 4 months of down time and $6000 worth of parts and labor later to find out it was a faulty new cap from Oriely auotparts.

 

Amazing. You really went through the wringer to finally reach the conclusions you did on the distributor problem. Thank you very much for the tips. We KNEW someone else must have had the same trouble.

I think replacement auto parts have become a general nightmare. Tons of flaky aftermarket products, too much from China, (some OK; some bad), etc. Unreliable suppliers even to our old name distributors such as NAPA, (who I used to trust in almost everything).

Dennis

 

Dont buy the crap from the auto parts stores my stock one lasted 105k miles and i put an acdelco back on it and now i am at 165k with no problems. (knock on wood) Acdelco is all that i put on my tahoe and never had problems

 

also had a 97 Tahoe and used the AC Delco brand parts and never a problem

 

Yes it is AC Delco caps for me from know on however I did find that the NAPA ones do work but not much difference in price. 992door your Tahoe is really nice wish mine was half that clean looking. I wanted a 2 door to begin with but my wife talked me into a 4 door it has been very hand automobile. I need to do some maintence to it, it has kind of gone by the wayside and I have let it slip away a little it has 235,000 miles on it and still runs great.