I’m having a problem with stalling. First started about 3 months ago, when I would come to a stop, the rpm’s would fall off drastically, but would rebound right away. About a week later, it would actually stall, but I could start it without a problem. Took it to a local shop where they said my cam sensor needed replacement. That was done and it ran good for about 2 weeks when the same thing started again. Took it back to the same shop and they told me that the cam sensor had gone bad or the sensor that had been put in was faulty. They replaced it at no charge to me, but they said that the crank sensor needed to be flashed and that had to be done by the dealer. So off to the dealer I went, and they told me that the crank sensor needed to be replaced not flashed. I had them do that and it ran good for about 2 weeks again and now it’s starting to stall again. Any Ideas?
If these characters are messing with cam & crank sensors then it seems likely that there must be a check engine light involved here. If that is the case then you need to find out what the actual error codes are/were. The format is “P1234.” Many times they end up on invoices.
If there have been no error codes then I think these people are nuts. To me it just sounds like a sluggish idle air control valve. Its not that cam/crank sensor issues couldn’t cause something like this, but it makes for fairly expensive & weird WAG’ing strategy if they’re going there without error codes.
There were codes, they were p0340 and p0344. The idle air control valve was replaced in 09 when the vehicle was being used primarily by my wife at that time. I looked through some old invoices and found that this repair had been done without my knowledge.
Both of those codes refer to circuit problems (as so many codes do) - not to “part” problems. Now, the part (the sensor) is part of the circuit, so sometimes the circuit problem might be in the part. BUT, then you have all of those wires and their connections at each end. So how much do you know about what these jokers have done to actually verify the problem?
Keep in mind that for a shop the most cost effective strategy is always to just guess & replace parts in the face of such codes. Its fast and they get the parts mark-up and if it doesn’t work it doesn’t matter. They get paid anyway.
As far as what do I know for sure what has been done? I leave it up to the “professionals”. The idea that this is a circuit problem makes sense to me. There have been times when the read out on the overhead console shows random numbers and/or letters. When I push the reset switch on the console it clears up. Also, one time when I stopped the vehicle and turned off the engine, all of the interior lights came on. I thought that maybe one of the doors or the liftgate were open but upon inspection every thing was buttoned up tight. After a few minutes the lights went off as if a door had been opened and closed. I don’t know if these things would have an affect on, or be affected by this circuit or not. BTW, thanks for your insight.
The vehicle has lots and lots of circuits and its unlikely that any of this other stuff is related to those sensors. However, one of the most important things that many different circuits do share are grounding points and odd, intermittent electrical activity often turns out to be related a bad ground(s). Its not clear what kind of a shop you are using but I’d find a reputable, locally owned shop, report all of these issues and the past work. Then no matter what else they wanted to do I’d ask them to go through the vehicle & check & clean all of your grounding points - or at least the major engine & body related ones.