Not to continue this but I have had several crank sensor failures as far as I can remember. Two left me high and dry on the freeway. One had symptoms of a chugged on hard acceleration weeks or months before final failure. I do recall that one other time, oil had gotten into the connector and cleaned out, according to what I was told anyway.
Most of us say go back and check your work if a problem developes from a repair. A little hard when you have to deal with a third party instead of yourself, but the same principal applies. Go back and check the work for those two parts
And oil in the connector. Bye.
In my experience most dealership shops will do whatever it takes to solve their customer’s problems. As long as the customer keeps paying the invoices of course. I’m guessing there is some sort of miscommunication. One of the poster’s here, @Nevada_545 , is a knowledgeable dealership mechanic. Maybe Nevada has some advice on the best way for you to deal w/your dealership shop.
I’m going to ask the next mechanic I take it to to replace that sensor regardless of what else he finds. Since that thing takes some work to get to, it’ll be better to replace it now “just in case” than to wait until it fails to do so.
This was my first visit there so I wasn’t a normal customer. And my car is 26 years old. When I told them that they gave me a sour look, like “why are you driving something so old” kind of look. Plus for them to have really get into the weeds on the car, they would have had to have it for a long period of time and the $150 charge was only good for two hours tops.
What’s the routine maintenance situation on the timing belt, tensioner, water pump, and valve clearances? If you plan to keep your Corolla on the road for some time (good idea imo), if those parts are due or near due for replacement, this would be avery good time to do all those jobs. An opportunity to parlay the cost, spend more now, to save even more money later, and have a more reliable ride.
Well, I’m back, and after waiting for two and half weeks to have the car looked at by yet another mechanic it’s still not been repaired. That said, this mechanic did say that the timing is ok, but he said that he thinks the problem appears to be electrical in nature, possibly something in the distributor. But logically speaking how would changing an oil seal affect the distributor? I’m almost to the point of becoming unglued. I’m regulated to short trips for fear that a long trip would leave me stranded somewhere. If anyone knows of a good shop in central Indiana somewhere (Kokomo, Peru), I’m all ears.
A stalled car is a lot easier to diagnose than an intermittent. Wouldn’t be the first time I towed a car 50 miles. Drive till failure if it is this elusive. Just carry a phone and lunch.
Just speculating b/c the mechanic who has actually seen your car hasn’t spoken here. But that comment might indicate there’s a crank sensor problem. That could cause an engine missing symptom, b/c the crank sensor’s output signal is what the computer uses to properly time the sparks to the spark plugs. It seems like the way to know for sure is to monitor the crank sensor output w/an o-scope as the rpm is varied. The crank sensor is at least in the front crankshaft seal area, which the distributor isn’t.
It’s very possible also you car’s symptom is unrelated to the seal replacement, just a coincidence. I have to say, you have the patience of Job!
That’s what I keep telling the mechanics, but they never seem to check that. Now, that said, the latest mechanic doesn’t have diagnostic equipment so maybe it’s beyond his ability to diagnose. I will just have to try and find another mechanic who has an o-scope (btw, what’s an o-scope?) and try again and bring this to their attention.
Thanks for the advice. I’ll get on it again after the new year.
I think I’ve mentioned this before, but if I had this problem I’d use it as an opportunity to replace the water pump, timing belt, and timing belt tensioner, and check & correct the valve clearances at the same time. Assuming those jobs are due for renewal of course. Otherwise you’ll be paying later to have a mechanic take apart bits that are being taken apart now for access.
Three of the four mechanics to look at the engine the timing belt has recently been replaced. But water pump and tensioner, yeah, those make sense. It’s finding someone who will do all that for me seeing as how the car is 26/27 years old, and a lot of smaller shops won’t do what they feel is complicated engine work. Oh well, another project for after the new year! Thanks again for your help.
Hello gang. I just wanted to share an update, which is really no update at all. I haven’t had the car looked at lately, and I probably won’t for a few weeks. I’m tired of spending money on something no one here locally can diagnose. So I’m going to leave this topic open in hopes that I can get the car looked at something in the next couple of days, but if the forum moderators close it down for lack of input then I’ll open a new forum. Thanks for all your help and advice. Hopefully I’ll be able to get this problem fixed and if when/if that happens I’ll let you know what it was.
No worries, people post to 10 year old boards/threads sometimes, so I don’t think anybody including the OP can or does close Threads down… Just come back to this one so we have all the info already discussed…
Remember before going too far down this road, it’s entirely possible the symptom is unrelated to the prior work done. Just a coincidence. Other common problems that can cause this same symptom
Sorry this took so long to respond to. All four of those items you mentioned have been addressed. Fuelfilter, air filter and fuel pump have all been replaced within the part year, and the exhausted was checked for clogging but is fine. HOWEVER, I will keep all that in mind whenever I next visit a mechanic. Thanks for all your advice, and I’ll post again when I get it checked out.
Here,s one of my crank sensor stories. Just pulled out of downtown St. Paul and got on the practice freeway. Car stalled and would not start. Walked across four lanes of traffic and up the hill to downtown again. (No cell phones yet). Walked to the nearest hotel and called a tow truck from my favorite guy 50 miles away. Called a rental car company that was downtown and got their address. 45 minutes later got a rental car to drive home 50 miles. If you are familiar with St. Paul, you go from 6th to 8th and 7th is a mystery walking, plus everyone else walking seems to be just as confused finding 7th. Getting colder. $100 for the tow, $100 for the car, and $30 for the crank sensor.
That’s why I did what @Tester suggested and had a new sensor put in before failure. So my advice, take a cell phone and a lunch just in case.