QuestionQUESTION: hi roland, also asked this question of kevin, awaiting response, just trying to cover all bases. also, the crank wires i refer to testing are actually gray and black/blue, not tan (cam sensor color). and i am probing them half-way back up the wire since the plug is almost impossible to probe while connected. the manual says to disconnect all plug wires at distributor and probe sensor wires while someone cranks car, should get .3-5 volt fluctuation, i get a steady .5-.6 volts while cranking between gray and black crank wires on old AND new sensors.
"hi. my daughters stratus died on her way home from work saturday. went to look, couldnt figure anything so towed it 1 1/2 hours home. 2.5 V6. doesnt appear to have spark, checking the old fashioned way at the #2 plug wire. fuel pump whirs when key is turned on. cap, rotor, plugs less than a year old, look fine. here's what i've done so far using forum readings and haynes manual: pulled distributor completely out of car suspecting coil first, ohmed out both coil readings, got .7 and about 15K, so assumed coil is good. replaced dist, checked cam sensor voltage going in, good, cam voltage coming out goes to 5 volts and back down like the book says. checked voltage at #1 fuse which supposedly tells me ASD is working since it has to pass it by there. checked voltage going into crank sensor, good. checked voltage coming out at tan and black/blue wires - no voltage fluctuation to 5 volts, manual says to replace crank sensor. did that, STILL no output voltage from crank sensor! also , no codes at all. any help appreciated, really frustrated. thanks."
ANSWER: Hi Jon,
If I understand, you are getting voltage oscillation on the cam sensor wires at the distributor. Did you check that fuse #1 isn't blown/subtle crack in the wire?
I don't understand your description of the wire color for the crank sensor as the manual says it should be gray/black for the signal and black light/light blue for the sensor ground. The tan/yellow wire is the signal for the cam sensor. I wonder if you are confusing the names of those two sensors?
The cam is in the distributor, the crank sensor in mounted on the end of the engine at the bell housing seam with the transmission. Maybe you have a broken timing belt which is of course disabling the cam which drives the distributor, while still providing signal from the crank sensor?
Roland
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QUESTION: Roland, thanks for the response. I did indeed confuse the wire colors in my original post to kevin which is why I added the first paragraph at the top of my question to you. The crank wires I'm checking are gray/black and black/lt blue, checking the wires right back from the plug on the sensor itself between sensor and pcm. I pulled the top cover off timing belt and it looks to be intact, also, when I cranked the engine after re-installing the distributor originally the rotor was turning, so I'm assuming the timing belt is ok. #1 fuse is good. I just don’t seem to have a return voltage from crank sensor, even the new one. Is there something else that would interrupt that voltage? Just doesn’t make sense, has the 8 volts on orange going in, half volt coming out, nothing in between. Could something be holding it down in the pcm?
ANSWER: Hi Jon,
Sure, the gray/black wire on pin 3 could be shorted to ground between the plug and the pcm or the pcm input could be shorted to ground internally. So why not pull sensor plug and the pcm plug and see if the wire is shorted to ground? Then check the input socket of the pcm at pin 32 with a high impedence ohmmeter to check whether it is grounded. When you put in the crank sensor did you press its tip against the internal metal surface it 'senses", if not reset that.
Roland
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QUESTION: Roland, I'll be checking wires, etc. tonight, time and daylight permitting, get back to you asap. Also, I THINK I pushed the crank sensor in as far as possible while tightening. Don’t know if you've ever changed one but it seems to be a one handed job. I think it was touching, I heard it hit when I was pushing it in. I know it had the paper spacer on the tip, if it backed out even a fraction while tightening would that kill the voltage senseing? Its magnetic, so I would assume there's got to be enough allowance for it to still read something even if it backed out right? am i even going down the right path with all this or have i completely overlooked something else? the car was running fine and just died while she was driving and hasnt started since.
AnswerHi Jon,
I am not certain what the spacer maximum is, but it could be that it has slipped back. You could check whether the spacer has worn down or not, but get a new spacer from a dealer to apply when you re-insert it. If you aren't getting pulsing out of it then either it doesn't have the bias voltage on the orange wire, the signal wire is shorted, the ground wire it 'open', or the spacing is too great, or the sensor is no good. Without the pulses you will not get spark. I assume that you are turning the crank by hand to test for pulsing, because the pulse rate may be too rapid to detect if you are turning it with the starter motor.
Roland
