Pontiac Repair: Pontiac Sunfire wont start, camshaft sensor, pontiac sunfire

Question
Where do I begin. Well one month ago my car would crank but wouldn't fire so I brought it to a mechanic who fixed the battery for some odd reason. Anyways its still occurring and until yesterday I could start it but it would run rough for about 5 minutes b/f running fine. By running rough I mean the engine would jump and the exhaust would put- getting random engine misfire for code. Then when I was driving the car shut off,the gages started going crazy,clicking sound behind dashboard, and every engine light came on in my car. Finally got it to the mechanic and he can't start it-says the gages are going nuts like nothing he's ever seen b/f. Computer is giving codes for crank sensor and camshaft sensor- one week ago changed the map sensor b/c code came in for that. Alternator is fine and just got all plugs and wires replaced. Please help I need my car back.

Kelli Gabrielson

Answer
Hi Kelli:

Wow this is a problem car from hell! Well where to start.. I would start with the basics. Battery and connections at the battery. Bad ground wires on the engine or on the body under the battery tray. What year is this car? Some of the older ones like 95-98 had all kinds of corrosion issues with the engine control computer. This was actually a recall on this car. I have seen issues with the ignition switches on these car where they will not power up the fuse boxes properly and cause all kinds of issues. The contacts in the switch get high resistance in them. There was also a recall on those switches on the later model year ones like 98-2001??? The crank/cam codes are a bit odd on that engine I wouls look at the things I metioned a bad power feed or ground to the computer will cause a whole slew of codes to set. Another issue with these cars is fuel pumps go bad causing all kinds of diveability issues but none of the lamp/light problems you mentioned. Good luck :}