Nissan Repair: 1996 Nissan Altima Stalling, nissan altima, crank case

Question
My car starts to stall frequently now. it happens at stop light and while driving, the car rattle and shuts off, sometimes I can restart backup but sometimes I have to crank for 10-20 seconds after it stalls.
I had the problem over a year ago and I kept it with a mechanic for a week until he found the problem -the distributor- so he replaced it and now the problem showed up again. Is it possible the distributor got ruined so quickly? Can there be another problem with the same symptoms?

Thanks,


Answer
John,

The distributor was a rebuilt unit and these have been known to fail.  Also, since the engine is old and the rings have blow by the extra pressure in the crank case causes seals to fail sooner than normal.  I would remove the distributor cap and rotor along with the cover under the rotor post and see if there is oil on the pickup to confirm.  I do not know of any other issue that causes the engine to cut out and then die.  This along with your long crank time seems to lead to the distributor.  Now, if you want to check for the heck of it look at the fuel pressure when the car acts up and see if the pressure is off.  That would be my other thought on the subject.