My car has a little bit of a rough idle and around 1800 2000 rpm under light exceleration it has a studer. Is that the cap and rotor?? I didnt know our cars had a cap and rotor i thought all they had was opti spark? I called to get a new GM one and it was 184.99 is that high? thanks

 

Its basically a digital distributor that is connected on the front of the motor directly in-line with the cam. You can buy a brand new 95-97 opti from a discount parts dealer like Jason Cromer(do a search for his number) for about $200. So you are getting 1/2 the unit for about the same price there.

I would replace plugs and wires before the opti. JMO.

 

Could this be my IAC? If it is how do i clean it?

 

Doesnt sound like your IAC.

 

do you think it is that cap and rotor then?

 

i had misfire problems under high load low rpm take offs, and at high rpms like 5000+. changed out the cap and rotor. an ACDelco unit ran me like 150 or so. but i have a discount on parts. anyways cap and rotor was carbon tracked pretty bad and after i replaced it my car ran like a charm.

 

Where is this located? How hard is it to change? I didnt even think that our cars had a cap and rotor i thought they just had opti spark???

 

The cap and rotor are IN the Optispark. I would not replace just the cap and rotor. Like said before you can buy a FULL BRAND NEW opti from Jason Cromer or Dal (which is where I got mine) for right at $200.00. It took mine 2 days to ship if you're wondering. Also if you just change the cap and rotor you have to have a inverted 4 mm torx bit to open the opti, once you get that open you have to have a 8mm(I think) male torx bit to get the rotor off. If you're wondering how I know all this it's because when I rebuilt my engine 6 months ago I replaced the cap and rotor, 3 months later (no warranty) my opti went bad. I then replaced the WHOLE thing with a brand new GM unit from Dal like I should have done the first time. Buying the cap and rotor kit cost me $135.00 from Autozone............lesson learned! So my point to all this, don't make the same mistake I did.......do it right the first time.

 

i agree with the do it right the first time, but ive never had very good luck with specific parts from autozone. my opti was plenty clean inside and looked good except for the cap and rotor. so thats all i replaced with an ACDelco unit and 20k miles later im still fine and just had it off for cam replace and it still looks good. (if your water pumps been leaking into it id say replace deffinately)
just my .02

 

Taking appart an opti is not an easy task. Mine was sealed up REALLY well when I tried to go cheap and replace parts instead of the whole thing. After destroying the cap/rotor I just ended up buying a whole new one anyway.

 

I replace the WHOLE unit on every other opti problem. Otherwise I just change the cap and rotor.

There won't be a next time, I'm going with Deltech or something similar. Hopefully my buddy will hurry up and get his mechanical distributor setup working, then I'll probably just copy off him.

 

thanks for all the help!

 

how much should an optispark replacement cost at a dealership?
just had mine changed they charged me 674.14 for the part.. # 010457702...
sounds a little steep.. but I dont know how much is involved with that part....

hosed?? or treated fairly??

The new MSD units are 150 in the summit catalog...... is that the same thing?

--Troy

 

You paid list price for the part-that's what you pay when you take your car to the dealer. Jason or Dal sell it for less than half of that, but you have to do the labor to install it.

The MSD part is only a cap and rotor.


Nick-LT1: don't change the opti until you have ruled out plugs and plug wires.

 

Good to know they didnt bend me over too badly.

Is the "GM optispark" in the summit catalog that lists for around 380 the one that would be the full replacement?

Thats a huge difference in price..

oh well.. they fixed it in record time. like 4-5 hours.. gotta love GM goodwrench. Im glad they know their stuff.

--Troy