How do I know I have a bad distributor on a 1985 BMW 325E?

Question

My car is very hard to start up sometimes. The mechanic thinks it is a bad distributor. However, he doesn't have the needed equipment to check the distributor and the car won't start. How do I know it's a bad distrubutor? What else can it be? He is convinced that the starter is fine.

Answer 1

I answered your other question related to this problem.  The car does not have a distributor it just has a cap and rotor.  The cars ignition is handled by the pickup sensors in the transmissions bell housing and the signal is put into the computer that tells the coil to spark the cap and rotor sends the spark off to the right plug.  The computer is basically the distributor.

Answer 2

if it runs fine once its started then its not the distributor

Answer 3

Change your mechanic. If he does not have the capability to do a proper diagnosis of your car, then he does not deserve to be your BMW car's mechanic.

There are a lot of things other than a distributor that can cause a no start or hard starting problem.

Giving you a crash course in automotive technology is not a good alternative to his inability to diagnose your car.