Car Killed While Driving

M

magpie

Registered User
Twice in the same day, while driving, my SC engine killed. I asked the person I bought it from and he told me he had the same thing happen once about five years ago. Once it sits for about 15 minutes, it starts right back up. They told him it was the crank position sensor and replaced it. All the gauges are normal and the check engine light isn't on. Any ideas?
 
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Theoretically the car should not start at all with a bad crank sensor. Sometimes symptoms like these are simply due to dirty fuel injectors. Try running some injector cleaner. Strange that it starts after 15 minutes though.. sounds more like some kind of sensor. What are you doing when it dies? Turning, idleing at traffic sign, accelerating, slowing, ect. Does it always die at about the same time, and are there any other strange things happening? Look to see if the upshift arrow is lit while you are cranking the engine to start.
 
If the up-shift light is on while cranking when the car doesn't start it's the crank sensor.

This is how mine went, intermittently.

Parts are $60 and it is not hard to replace.

Aaron
 
The first time it killed was when I was returning from lunch and I pressed the gas to pull out of the driveway and the second after work the same day on the freeway. I pressed the gas to change lanes. It's an automatic, but the up shift arrow does show when I try to start it.
 
In that case it probably is the crank position sensor. As pastera experienced, it could be happening intermittently, in which case semi-normal starting could be possible. Perhaps a code check would prove decisive, just have autozone do it for free if you don't have a code scanner.
 
Mine did the same thing, and I hooked the scanner to it and it gave me 14 code.
It was the crankshaft sensor. I replaced it and it cured the problem.
I had to spend a long time trying to adjust the sensor though, with a magnetic gage. I don't think I adjusted it right .
sometimes it runs real rough when I fist start the engine, and when I drive it for 10 minutes everything goes back to normal.
I don't uderstand the thing.
 
The adjustment on the crank sensor is only so that the vanes on the harmonic balancer do not strike the sensor. The position does not effect the sensor output like the cam position sensor.

Aaron
 
when mine went, the car died and wouldnt start at all, we towed it back to the house, and let it sit over night, we tried cranking it the next morning and it wouldnt start, we pushed it into the garage and cranked it one last time to see whether or not the crank bolt was sheered off, and the car started.... it ran for 30 seconds and died again... it was the crank sensor definately, we took it off and found that the sensor had been broken by the supercharger belt rubbing into the wires.
 
The next time mine wouldn't start was due to the crank bolt shearing....Now I'm selling..bought a SUV. Hated to..had to.
 
yeah a wobbly crank pulley can caus ethe sensor to go bad, however when we took mine off we saw, this..... the idiots who last worked on the car put the crank sensor cable in the wrong position when they moved it to do the waterpump... and the supercharger pulley ate it.

busted.jpg
 
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