Greetings all.

I recently had my mom's '99 Accord V6 in for some work. The service-writer mentioned that one of my oil leaks was coming from the distributor, and that the entire distributor had to be replaced. The price quoted was pretty high, so I figured I'd take a closer look at it to see whether replacing entire distributor was necessary. Apparently it is. (See image.) Unless what I've read online is incorrect, and that the inner seal is replaceable.

So, is the leaking seal around the upper distributor shaft replaceable? If not, are Cardone brand distributors decent. I'm talking new. Thanks ahead of time. Cheers.

Sorry if image is obnoxiously large. I'll know to reduce before attaching in the future.



Oil pooling inside distributor.

 

I think what I may do, is replace the cap and rotor (Have cap, forgot rotor!) and the lower o-ring, and call it a day. There's not a lot of oil sitting in the distributor body and there will be two new seals at work. Unfortunately, what might happen is the oil getting on the distributor cap/distributor body rubber seal seems to wreak havoc on the rubber. The old one stretched all out of shape when I removed the cap. It had lost most of its elasticity. But since my mom doesn't drive much today, maybe 20 miles per week, I'm not going to worry right off the bat. I'll watch for evidence of a larger leak below the head/distributor junction and put a new distributor in if I see it. Too bad Honda didn't make the V6 distributor as serviceable as the 4 cylinder, in terms of replacing the inner seal. And I suspect that it wouldn't be leaking if the distributor sat upright rather than having the shaft parallel to the ground. Supposedly that's why Subarus, with their boxer engine, are notorious leakers with their horizontally placed heads. But I digress a bit. Again, I may just do the 1/2 repair and save a lot of money. Any input is appreciated. Cheers.

 

The o-ring will prevent oil leaking outside of the distributor. That shaft seal prevents oil leaking into the distributor where the cap/rotor/electronics are housed.

The seal is replaceable, but a bit of a pain. The hardest part was finding the replacement seal many years ago. You can search on here for distributor shaft seal, because I know the part number is on a thread somewhere on this site. By now a google search may also pull up the part number. To replace the shaft seal, you'll have to remove some internal distributor items to gain access.

 

Thanks, @PAhonda . I figured that the seals I replaced wouldn't do much to eliminate oil intrusion into the distributor body. I was just thinking the less oil hitting the lower end of the shaft, the less would be heading towards the rotor end. This might be purely wishful thinking on my part.

As far as the removal of internals, I only see the one ignition module that sits in the body. It's not like the 4 cylinder models that have what looks like an easier to replace seal, but a few electronic parts to remove as well. With this one, I think the worst part might be driving out the pin at the lower end. Oh, and as you said, finding the right seal for it. I gave the pin some good taps with a punch and got no movement. It seems like it needs to be pressed out somehow. Thanks again. Cheers.