QuestionQUESTION: I have a 1996 Sebring conv It will start and home and run fine in the garage When you take it out on the highway it will run great for about 5 miles then buck and die leave it sit for about a half hour and it will start and run again for about 5 miles then shut down engine cranks over sounds right won't start for a half hour
ANSWER: Hi Duane,
This sounds like one of the two engine rotational position sensors is failing when it heats up. This is a very common sort of behavior, and when it cools down it works again and the engine will run.
To verify and determine which, use the ignition key: "on-off-on-off-on and leave on" doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Then watch the check engine light, which remains 'on', to see it begin to flash, pause, flash, etc. Count the number of flashes before each pause. Then repeat the process to assure an accurate/repeatable set of flash counts. The last 2 sets will always be 5 flashes each. Then write back and tell me the counts in order of appearance. Those number will form 2-digit fault codes, when combined in pairs in the order of their appearance and that will tell us what is wrong. The last code, for example is 55, which means 'end of code readout'.
Roland
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QUESTION: Thankyou for your quick response
It flashed 1 then twice then 4 times then 5 times a few times then over again Now it quite flashing must have to leave it sit for a while to reset
I will check it again in a bit. It is a 2.4 engine it it matters
ANSWER: Did you 1,2,4,5,5,5 or not? Keep trying the key trick. If that doesn't work again, try disconnecting the battery, then connect, then drive/run it till it dies, then do the code readout again. I have to have an accurate set of counts to make sense of this. You are close...
But the exact number of counts and the order in which those counts came out is necessary and ideally you should be able to repeat the procedure until you know for sure what they are and the order in which they appeared. Once you have them, we simply group them in pairs, in the order of appearnce to form a set of 2-digit numbers (for example what I listed at the top would be: 12,45,55. But that is just a guess on my part. You have to give me the counts as accurately as possible because mistaking one flash count will send us on the wrong pathway.
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QUESTION: Ok the first time I got 1,2,4,2,1,5.5 the check engine light when running stayed on all the time I checked again and I got 1,2,5,5,I disconnected the battery I started and ran the car the check engine light stays off
AnswerHi Duane,
The first set is a problem because it has 7 number and I have to have an even number of flash counts to pair them up. If you disconnect the battery and just start the engine and then do the counts you will typically get 1,2,5,5 which is only telling us what we already know: 12 means the battery was disconnected recently, and 55 means end of readout. You have to drive/run the engine long enough for it to die again on its own and to refuse to start. Then read the codes at that point without disconnecting the battery (which would erase any new codes before you have a chance to read them). I am looking for a code 11 or a code 54, so you need to count very accurately as there is also code 12, 13,....41,42....53,54, etc. and each means something different is wrong.
Roland
