I just had the crank sensor replaced in my 1992 Buick Century (3.3L V6) because of abrupt hesitation and failure to restart. Because I had the sensor replaced twice before (10 years ago & 6 years ago), I recognized the symptoms and had my mechanic replace it. After running some local errands, I left the car outside for 2 hours before putting it away in my garage. I cranked it but couldn’t restart it. I took the transmission out of park and put it back into park and the car restarted. Could there be some kind of transmission-connected safety switch that’s intermittent? My mechanic says it’s highly unlikely for the ignition module or computer to be intermittent. Once an electronic circuit malfunctions, it stays inoperable. That’s why he replaced the sensor.
Also, can anyone explain, in plain English what this trouble code means:
“26 Quad-driver sense voltage shows a low voltage when battery voltage should be present or if the sense voltage shows battery voltage when a low voltage should be present.”
There’s a park/neutral safety switch mounted on the transaxle that prevents the starter from operating unless the shifter is in park/neutral. Sometimes the contacts in these switches wear out and doesn’t allow current to the starter solenoid. The next time it won’t start in park put the shifter in neutral. If the engine starts the problem is with the paek/neutral safety switch.
It cranks in park, but it doesn’t start. I wonder if the transmission has some kind of dual safety switch that cuts power to the ignition system as well as the starter solenoid.
You seem to indicate that the starter was cranking the engine okay when you couldn’t start the car so I assume that was working as it should. Most of the time when a car won’t start up after it has warmed up I think the problems are with the ignition system. Fuel delivery is another possibility though. I would first make sure the ignition is working if the problem happens again. If the crank sensor becomes a problem then there should be a error code generated.
Number 26 refers to the error code number. Here is the code definition for code 26 for a GM vehicle: Quad-driver sense voltage shows a low voltage for 5 seconds when battery voltage should be present or if the sense voltage shows battery voltage for 20 seconds when a low voltage should be present.
A quad driver is an electronic device with four inputs and four outputs. It is located in the ECU. In this case the device is looking for normal battery voltage for the input to it and if it is lower than expected it will cause an error code. It could be set to look for a low voltage also, depending on the design of the circuit.