Cap and rotor meltdown!

[peppermrj]

Run into a weird problem with my son's 2000 wrangler. 4 banger with a 5 speed. Twice in the last 6 months he has run out of gas. Twice the rotor melted in half takong a good bit of the inside of the distributor cap with it. Wells cap and rotor from Autozone. Like AZ but not to fond of Wells electrical components. The first time they replaced them under warranty. This time just bought a different brand.

Any thoughts? Have anything to do with running out of gas or just a coincidence? Bad brand (Wells)? Weird.

[fredjacksonsan]

That's really weird. I've never heard of just melting the cap and rotor. I'd say since he's run out of gas twice and it happened twice, there's probably some sort of correlation. So tell him to fill up at 1/4 tank.

If he fills up at 1/4 tank and it happens again,then there's another problem. But if it doesn't happen again, you will have figured it out - don't run out of gas.

[peppermrj]

I am considering pulling the fuel pump or injector fuse while it is running to see if it replicates. Not sure if that might cause other problems tho. Rather fix it @ home than where ever!

[seb001]

Strange...

I suggest that you install the new cap and rotor and take a look at them once a week to see if it's a progressive process. If it is, then you probably have an electrical problem: Bad wires or plugs, capacitor/coil.

Running out of gas should simply stall the Jeep. But since it occured twice, it is probably related. I can't think of how?

A large electrical short could melt/blowup the components...

Seb

[fredjacksonsan]

Any report on the problem?

What has turned up on the checks, have the cap and rotor been ok? Has he run out of gas again?