About a year and a half ago I decided to upgrade my ignition. One of the things I did was put a new module in it (Accel part#35361) and I've been having some difficulties with it. About 8 months after I put it in the car would shut off while driving, when I tried to restart it it started right up. It did this for about a day then decided it didn't want to start again. We went through everything we could think of and finally put a new module in, and it fired right up. It worked fine until yesterday, it was in the shop getting some work done, and when they started it after it was done, it died about 5 mins later. They diagnosed it as the ignition module, and again with a new one put in it fired right up. The first time the part was still under warranty, but I had to pay for this one, so its getting a little annoying
Is a 6-8 month lifespan normal for these modules, or is there something else that could be causing a short lifespan? I asked the shop and the mechanics had no idea, so hopefully someone here has had a similar problem.

 

Hey TABANDIT, I believe your module should last longer than 6 months. One
sure module "killer" is HEAT. These things come with a packet of heat sink paste ( white stuff ) that should be applied to the bottom side of the module
to act as a heat barrier between the module itself and the heated metal
parts of the distributor. Do you know if this stuff was applied to your module?
The tiny electronics that make up the circuitry in the module will "open up"
from the heat,causing the failure to start. After the car sits and cools down -
presto -she starts up ! Another possibility is you just happened to get a bad
part - right out of the box. Hope I could help.


"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing...
if you can fake that,you've got it made."
Groucho Marx

 

I never thought about the heat issue. I did use the silcone stuff on it, I thought it was for a better ground or something. Is there a heat shield or something that should be on the bottom of the distruibtor?
I also though about a bad part right out of the box, but to have it happen twice must mean I'm really unlucky.

 

make sure that you don't have pinched wires either.. my msd lasted for quite a while and when it died after a couple years i dropped in an accel and it died after a month.. found that the wires had rubbed through and shorted it out..

 

You should definitely check for bare or pinched wires somewhere. My buddy's 90 Iroc kept frying modules, and it turned out that he had pinched the wires leading up to the distributor between the motor/trans the last time he replaced the trans. Another thing you should be aware of is the fact that just about any Accel stuff is pure garbage, especially their modules. If you do a search on here, you'll find post after post from people who've had their Accel module die on them in a short period of time. Hands down, the best modules are the original AC Delco ones. The Borg-Warner "Select" modules are good too. The ones to stay away from are the Accels, Wells, or GP Sorenson units. These are a lot cheaper than the good ones, and there's definitely a reason why. It took 17 years for my original one to give out. I replaced it temporarily with a Wells unit since they're cheap, then I snagged an original AC Delco one from the junkyard and threw it in there. It's still running great a year later, and I threw the Wells one in the console for a spare just in case. The correct paste that goes on the bottom is called dielectric grease. It's also good to use on the distributor cap terminals where the spark plug wires attach, and on the tips of the plugs where the wires go.

 

i agree with Pat, stay away from the cheap aftermarket modules. i don't really much care for any aftermarket modules but i will use them in a pinch.
i don't put anything but A/C Delco modules on any of my cars & its all i'll recommend to my customers.
on a stock system, if the module goes out, i always replace the ignition coil too.

the grease is to help keep the module cool by allowing heat to transfer from the module to the distributor housing. with out it, the module can hit 300+ degrees.
anything other than dielectric or thermal grease & the module won't last near as long as it should.
the best thing to use is some thermal paste, the same stuff you use for the heat sink on the processor of your pc which is what the white stuff normally is.

 

i had the same problem, one day the car shut off, it was diagnosed as a ign module and i went thru 3-4 of them(a/c delco) couldnt find anything wrong. so i just gave up and bought a mallory hei dizzy. hope u can figure this out without having to spend big $$$