Replacing Dist Cap and Rotor on 99 Pathfinder 4WD

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alan - 01 Nov 2005 22:12 GMT

I haven't replced a distributor cap and rotor since I was in high
school but after my wife brought our daugther's car into Nissan to
have a battery replaced, because I didn't have time to go to
Costco..that battery was $90 and $45 for installation and $26 for an
electrical test. I told her not to pay fro the elsectrical test but
I'm not sure what she did. When she asked me about replacing the
distribuor cap and rotor for $80 I told her no. They also wanted to
replace the differential fluid for $80.

So, the OEM cap and rotor from Nissan are $28 and $8.

My question is are there any quirks that I should know about before
starting this? I assume you just unscrew the cap, take off the old
rotor and put the new one on..assuming it's guided. Then you put the
new cap on in the same orientation and replace the ignition wires or
do I have to replace the ignition wires first. It's been 40 years
since I've done this. Is there anything else to disconnect and
reconnect onto the new distributor cap?

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Cliff - 02 Nov 2005 22:34 GMT

> I haven't replced a distributor cap and rotor since I was in high
> school but after my wife brought our daugther's car into Nissan to
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> since I've done this. Is there anything else to disconnect and
> reconnect onto the new distributor cap?

If you don't believe the dealer when they wanted to perform an
electrical test, why do you believe them when they wanted to replace the
cap and rotor? And why are you adding the wires to the mix?

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tom418 - 04 Nov 2005 17:06 GMT

I recently changed the dist cap/rotor on my older Toyota Celica. Cost me
about $17 in parts. Two screws hold down the cap. On a Toyota, there's no
"unscrewing and screwing" the cap to install. I can't see where it would
matter if one changed wires before or after swapping the cap.

$80 for a diff fluid change? I just did it for my '79 Celica. Paid about
$6.00 for 2 qts Hypoid 80w90, GL-5.

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Don - 06 Nov 2005 05:11 GMT

>I haven't replced a distributor cap and rotor since I was in high
>school but after my wife brought our daugther's car into Nissan to
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
>since I've done this. Is there anything else to disconnect and
>reconnect onto the new distributor cap?

change the spark plug wires one at a time, to insure proper placement.

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