Cap rotor issue

[csmitty]

Good evening. Looking for a bit of help with this. Picked up a non running 325 with the 2.7 last week. He said it ran, then went to start it up next day and got nothing. So I figured it was nothing catastrophic. So just going though and tearing it down some to check everything out and came across this.



A few points have obvious contact with the rotor while others look about normal.

The rotor.



Could this be the result of some camshaft issues or just a mis-alignment?

Thanks for the help!

[jlevie]

That looks pretty normal to me and is probably just spark erosion.

[csmitty]

Really? The freshly shaved off brass just didn't seem right to me. And only being on about half of the points.

[bmwstudent]

+ 1 for normal

[dnguyen1963]

It does not look normal to me. Two prongs were shaved down significantly; whereas others looked fine. I do not know the cause, but maybe the rotor was not tighten down properly. You need a new cap at the least.

[csmitty]

Yea. Def gonna do new cap and rotor. Wires too most likely.

[e30construction]

just changed my wires cap and rotor a cpl days ago and they wer super old and i gotta say it looked nothing like this..something wasnt sitting right there or something was loose

[rodpaine]

I've seen this a couple of times over the years. You have an off-center cap or the cap was not seated properly when it was tightened down. Who manufactured the cap?

[Andy348]

I have the exact same problem. Replaced the cap with a new Brembi one and still did the same thing.

The black cover that goes in the distributor, its supposed to be put over the rotor and then the distributor bolted on, correct? Is it supposed to be infront or behind the timing cover?

[csmitty]

I'll have to check on the mfg. don't think it was Bosch which is what I was going to replace with.

Is it possible the cam timing gear could have some runout causing a wobble to the rotor?

[csmitty]

Both my cap and rotor are Bremi

The install could have been messed up as 2 of the hex screws holding the rotor on were messed up like using the wrong hex key. Not me though.

[Andy348]

I'm really not sure. I replaced mine and within 2-3 days it was like that again. Only thing I can think of is that black cover becuase I'm sure I've tightened all the bolts.

[E30Gus]

There is no way that is normal. Something isn't seated properly.