QuestionHello Roland, I've been messing around with this car for a full week, and cannot find the problem. The car got a touch warm last Monday morning, and then immediately shut down. I have done the following to try to find the problem. 1, pulled plug wire, and inserted a clean plug. The plug will show a single arc at the end of cranking (crank 5 secs, then let off key, you will get one single spark when you release the key). I assumed cam position sensor, or coolant temp sensor, so I replaced both. Same condition. Next, I inserted a test light into pin "B" of the 4 wire harness into the coilpack. When I ground the test light and turn the ignition on, I get a single flash on the test light, indicating that the ASD relay has done what it's supposed to. Then I turn the key over, and the light stays on for the duration of cranking, indicating that there is power to the coils. Then I try using the coil ground connectors (the other 3 of 4 on the plug) to show when the coils should be firing, and get no ground pulses to make the test light light up. Upon recommendation from someone else, I tried disconnecting the cam position sensor to set it back to factory spec, and this does not provide spark either. I'm hearing from some people that maybe the timing belt has jumped a notch or three, but I don't know how I could possibly check for this without spark and a timing light. I'm pretty stumped on this one, any help appreciated.
AnswerHi Brandon,
It might be the crank sensor has gone out. That is the one that is supposed to provide the pulse signals to the coil grounds. I am not certain whether you can get a code readout with the ignition key but give it a try. On-off-on-off-on and leave on, doing that in 5 seconds or less elapsed time. Watch then for either the check engine light to flash, pause, flash, etc. and count the number of flashes before each pause; or watch the odometer window for a four digit fault code to appear (either 0320 or 0340). If the engine light flashes then watch for two single flashes, or 5 then 4 flashes (11 or 54 code). Those are the crank and cam sensor codes, respectively.
You could also read the pulsing on the crank sensor signal wire, light blue/dark blue, compared to the ground wire, black/light blue, when you have the key at run and are turning the crank by hand with a socket on the crank pulley. It should oscillate from 5 or 0.3V.
Roland
The failure with heating is symptomatic of a failed hall effect crystal, so eliminating that possibility makes sense. You can get a free code readout at an Autozone parts store, but that assumes you can get it there; they may lend you an OBD-II reader as an alternative.
Let me know if you get any codes of interest.
Thanks for the detailed history of what you tried, that is helpful.
Roland
