It is difficult to believe that this part has failed already at 174tkm... It is easy to take the distributor off; only 2 bolts holding it on. It is difficult to find room for your wrench down there, however. The distributor rotor only cost me $20, so it might be cheap insurance for you to replace. Hopefully you have the push-on type (and the previous installer did not glue them on). If this is true, just pull it off (pry it off with a screwdriver and a SMALL amount of pressure, if you have to). If there is a screw-on rotor on there now, just remove the 1 screw and it will come right off.

I forgot to tell you that one common problem that causes what you are describing is a cracked distributor cap ($50). This can easily be caused if you had a front-end alignment recently done on the car, and they installed the tie rod upside down. This is possible to do, and the car will drive OK until you hit your first big pothole in the road, which will crack your distributor cap.

Good luck,

- Jeremy

1990 V8Q Zyclam Portland, Oregon (USA) http://www.MyV8Q.com/ Fun, Fun, Fun auf der Autobahn