Electrical wiring or distributor failure?

Dear Car Talk | Oct 01, 1993
Dear Tom and Ray:
George
RAY: Well, George, they're certainly on the right track in suspecting bad electrical components. In fact, your garage tried all the stuff WE would have tried.
TOM: But at this point, our vast (or at least half-vast) experience tells us that it's probably the distributor itself. We've seen other Corollas develop a hair-line crack in the distributor housing. That lets water in and short circuits the electronic ignition, which prevents the car from starting.
RAY: We figured this out when our sister's Corolla was having the same problem. We completely submerged her car in a neighbor's pool. And after pulling it out, we noticed that the distributor had filled up with water. So we replaced it, and now the car runs fine.
TOM: You think she'd be grateful. But noooo. She's still bent out of shape about those 250 rolls of toilet paper in the car she had just bought on sale at the shopping club.
George
RAY: Well, George, they're certainly on the right track in suspecting bad electrical components. In fact, your garage tried all the stuff WE would have tried.
TOM: But at this point, our vast (or at least half-vast) experience tells us that it's probably the distributor itself. We've seen other Corollas develop a hair-line crack in the distributor housing. That lets water in and short circuits the electronic ignition, which prevents the car from starting.
RAY: We figured this out when our sister's Corolla was having the same problem. We completely submerged her car in a neighbor's pool. And after pulling it out, we noticed that the distributor had filled up with water. So we replaced it, and now the car runs fine.
TOM: You think she'd be grateful. But noooo. She's still bent out of shape about those 250 rolls of toilet paper in the car she had just bought on sale at the shopping club.
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