Well my water pump took a dump on me so I am fixing that this weekend and I figured while I am down there I can do the opti since it is the original one. I am kind of low on cash, and the opti that Auto Zone sells is around $170. Does anyone have any experience with this opti?

 

you will still need the cap and rotor which runs 180 or so to complete the unit. You wouldn't want to reuse your old cap and rotor. Some people have had success with the autozone and some have not.

 

optis are a bad habit, give them up!

 

those $170 opti's are just rebuilt and cleaned up real good, if your gonna replace it get AC delco, but i think both would be under warranty

 

I've had my Autozone opti on for a couple thousand miles with no problems so far... Like said above, the $170 is only for the optical side of the distributor... You'll have to dish out another $180 for the cap and rotor for a complete opti... At least in my neck of the woods you do.

 

I bought mine 3 1/2 months ago (cap and rotor). I will be pulling it back off the car as soon as the weather lets me. Lucky for me it has a 3 Month warranty (since I've had it three and a HALF months ) Moral of the story: I will NEVER buy another opti piece from autozone because there waranty sucks!! Really auto zone does NOT have a waranty at all on the opti, they just have a 90 waranty on all there products is what I was told. On the other hand GM has a 1 year waranty. I think I can get mine from Jason Chromer for around $200 (complete opti) but I have a vented which is a lil' cheaper than non-vented. Good luck at what ever you do. I personally may go with Daltek (sp?)

 

That $200 is for a vented opti. He has a '94 which is non-vented and a lot more money. What was stated above is untrue about HAVING to get a cap and rotor as well...that's not really true if your is actually functioning. I have bought an autozone opti (just hte optical portion becuase the cap & rotor appeared fine), it's worked great for several thousand miles so far.

My advice to you however is if your opti is still working fine leave it alone. I wouldn't change it JUST becuase you are pulling the water pumpe off. Taking off the opti will require yanking the air pump and bracket as well as pulling the balancer.

EDIT: I also had a '94 T/A...people seem to be so scared of the opti. I've actually taken mine apart to clean them etc. with great results. You'd be surprised how much carbon buildup there can be in the optical portion alone. But again, if yours is funcitoning fine i'd just leave it be...don't fix what isn't broken.