The distributor on the Nissan 3.3 contains the ignition control module, ignition coil, and the camshaft position sensor. They will fail internally but I would not say prematurely. As I mentioned in my first posting the truck has 145,000 miles on it. A new distributor from the Nissan dealer is $440 Autozone is $320. I shopped around online and found one from Partstrain for $175 plus $60 core. I had to wait 6 days for delivery. The install was easy 30...mins or so. As I was looking over the old one small metal pieces fell out and the shaft would not rotate smoothly. I am not sure which component of the three failed or if the failure was a result of the shaft wear. The camshaft position sensor would have generated a SES code. Anyway the new one works great and the truck runs super. I made the mistake of buying spark plug wires from the Nissan dealer $123.00. I saw the exact set online for $54.00 ouch! It pays to shop around! Thanks Jim
Steve Says,
Thanks so much for posting an update! I'm glad that you have your truck fixed. Many times with different codes it is very difficult to diagnose whether the code is causing the problem or whether the problem is causing the code. In this case the problem was causing the code.
It sounds like your distributor shaft must have gotten worn and maybe even broken and that is probably why it caused your engine to knock and set the knock sensor code.
Thanks for coming back to my site and again, I'm glad you have your truck fixed!
