Warning! Dubious Dizzys

Post by **Pyoor_Kate** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 3:14 pm

A while before Xmas I replaced my Dizzy cap. Or more, I didn't replace my dizzy cap; I bought a new one, went to fit it, found that the HT leads flapped about like fish floundering after being caught and decided that it was faulty.

Having taken it back, they offered me an (older stock) replacement, which was subtly different (the 'oles for the HT leads are smaller) and lo, it did fit. The shop in question said they'd check out the new batch of parts, but they'd not noticed any problems....

...and today, Nikki turned up complaining of a misfire that'd developed halfway here, and on checking we found she had the same poor fit on her HT leads to the distributor cap* **. Swapping it for an old tired spare of mine (see, it is valid, me keeping all those old worn out bits that still just about work) - cured the misfire.

So, kind of an alert, watch out for them, they're clearly out there and naff, and has anyone else encountered this?

* She'd expanded the metal at the end of the HT leads to attempt to get a better fit, but blamed the poor fit on cheap HT leads...

** This came from a different supplier

Post by **Multiphonikks** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 4:58 pm

... in addition to this, I'd actually found when fitting the dizzy at the service (about 1300 miles and two weeks ago) that the main HT lead from the coil didn't want to stay on at all... Today however, it was the number 3 HT lead (the one going to number 3 spark-plug) was waggling around. Thus, on acceleration the thing flapped about causing a horrid lack of power in an intermittent style.

This was of course made worse by the fact that 'MeriKate and I were driving to Bath for an interview for her; thus being on a schedule and where stopping to fix the car was a 'no option'; and as we're staying the weekend with PyoorKate and a few other people I'd said that the mog would be a better choice than the Honda to fit on the driveway as it was substantially smaller and there would be two minors and two fiats to fit on a driveway intended for two cars... Luckily 'MeriKate realised it wasn't my poor maintenence but the car

She's nice like that she is... not a bad 'Merican at all... though I suspect she's becoming ever so slightly attached to this land of ours...

I digress...

Sigh... At least it's fixed now. I phoned my supplier, who said he'd not heard anything but that if I posted it back he'd have a look...

Thanks Kate - I have a spare dizzy at home - shame I'd not thought to put it in the boot. (I have practically everything else... plugs, fuel-pump, towrope, bulbs, toolkit..... )

Post by **Kevin** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 1:30 pm

Did either of the Dizzy caps that were duff come from a moggie specialist ?

(see, it is valid, me keeping all those old worn out bits that still just about work)

Kate a princepal I have used for a long time is that when servicing if the car was running fine beforehand I keep the set of old bits as I know they were working OK and its easier to check something with a known working old one than a new one that may be from a duff batch, so you are not alone

Post by **Cam** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 2:14 pm

You certainly are not alone! I do the same, in fact I always keep a spare arm & cap in the boot as well as other assorted goodies in my spares box.

Post by **Pyoor_Kate** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 2:29 pm

Both of them came from different moggie specialists.

We also noticed that one of the internal contacts is in the wrong place and after only a few hundred miles has a gouge worn in it because it's too close to the rotorarm.

Post by **Chris Morley** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 4:34 pm

I must have at least 4 used dizzys that have done 3-4000 miles each and still look as good as new. All have come from ESM - they have never supplied me with anything than the standard late 1000 dizzy so I suggest that you buy a couple of service kits from them at a time rather than use this local specialist. As you do so many many miles each year it would save you doing numerous trips to your local specialists. In fact I've never had any problems whatsoever with any of the service parts they've supplied (cap, rotor arm, points, condensor or spark plugs).

Post by **Multiphonikks** » Sat Feb 12, 2005 6:52 pm

Actually Chris, one did come from them. I'm not in any way bad-mouthing them though (Mine came from ESM; Kate's came from somewhere else in the southwest). I don't think it's ESM's fault at all since they obviously just buy the caps in. They don't actually make them!

I spoke to Chris at ESM yesterday and I'm going to send the duff cap back. We've been all the way to Frome and back today and Hebe's been a lot happier (though she's still misfiring very very occasionally but that's due to the old old dizzy cap)

My personal opinion of the situation is that there is/are probably a bad batch of caps... which have been sent to various specialists...

As to keeping spares... I did have one in the boot but had taken it out some time in the past... and I should have put it back in! Doh!

Post by **Chris Morley** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:30 pm

Fair enough Nikki, I guess that any supplier can suffer from batches of poor quality parts(including ESM & Bull Motif who both have excellent reputations). We can't seriously expect them to examine every single part they stock for possible faults, unless we're willing to pay a lot more.

Post by **Multiphonikks** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 6:19 pm

Just an update:

I got in the post today a lovely new dizzy from ESM. I rang them to thank them for their quick service (I only sent them the duff one two days ago!) - and apparently they had looked through their stocks after I sent them mine and found a handfull of other duff ones.

This of course does lend to the idea that there is a batch of duff ones which have got in with decent ones somewhere during the manufacture process.

So pass it on!