someotherguy
+1y
There's no vacuum or mechanical advance on the distributor, it's all electronic. Though there's two ways it advances the timing. One is the computer will advance the timing when the ESC module is working as it should, if you're familiar with unplugging that tan wire w/the black stripe before setting your base timing, that's the ESC module you are disabling so that you can get a steady timing reading without the ESC module advancing it. In a way, think of this just like on a carburetor engine, unhooking the vacuum advance and plugging the hose before you set the timing, then you hook it back up after.
The other way is the ignition module itself has a default advance curve built into it, that sort of mimics mechanical advance in the older distributors. Even with the ESC module disabled, as you rev it up, it will advance the timing a little bit.
If your base timing is off, or the ESC module tan/black wire disconnected, or ignition module going bad...you can have problems with the advance.
Richard