Bad distributor cap? (86/FB - Rough idle/cold start)

[bjkroll]

Hi,

Very new to this forum, but seems like a great place for Pontiac Firebird info, and a all around car forum.

Anyways, my wife owns a 1986 Pontiac Firebird, 2.8 V6. Car needs alot of work here and there, so expect alot from me Im not much of a mechanic, but I have alot of friends to lend a hand when im unclear. Other things, I attempt to handle on my own. Well, to the point.. I was told that this car constantly runs into distributor cap problems.. usually throwing the timing off, rough idles, and sorta "bogging" when its given gas.. the car just cant keep a consistent RPM.

Would it be safe to say that these problems are being caused by the distrtibutor cap going bad.. and if so, why does this happen every damn winter?! Could it be the entire distributor is bad, or some other under-lying problem?

Thanks in advance,
Brad

[TheCamelMaster]

well, what it sounds like to me is that your cap is gettin cracked possibly because of it constantly going from hot to cold quickly (posibly do to freazing cold weather) and there might be moisture geting inside of it. or you could have bad wires or maybe the distributor itself is loose. if i were i would just change my wires and cap first and see if that dosent help. very cheap. those are my opinions on the matter.