96 SC2 crank sensor

[Martinhughes1]

Where is the crank sensor located?

[sierrap615]

back of the block, under the intake manifold

http://www.saturnfans.com/photos/sho...p/photo/14836/

this doesn't happen to do with DTC P0340 or P0341 does it?

[Martinhughes1]

No codes yet, but many times this week my daughter has not been able to get it started. I arrive to recue her and it is hard to start, but does turn over finally. I did find one coil pack reading 0 ohms and it should be 8-15K. Other coil was above 9K. Today problem seemed to worsen. I hear the fuel pump kicking in under the seat. I am in need of some advice. The CD tech manuals I have from GM have been some help, but not entirely. Chnaged crank sensor before coil pack too. Currently I am waiting for the coolant temp to come down to ambient so I can scan the sytem to copare IAT and ECT (should be nor more than 2C apart). SO many possibilities of a no start on this car.

[sierrap615]

does the coil read 0 ohms or OFL?

a quick easy test of the ignition system is to pull the wires off the coil, have a second person crank the engine. you should see a spark tower to tower.

do you have a OBD2 scan tool?

did you check the battery voltage with the engine off then during cranking?

i'm going to go ahead and say replace the ECT if it is not the new brass tipped design.

[Martinhughes1]

Coil on passenger side had no reading what so ever and the driver side had 9.18K. New one had 8.5K. It just happens this SC2 had the plastic ECT with a visible crack (poor design). Replaced with brass one and the PCM tripped a Serive Engine Soon light with corresponding fluctuations on temp guage. A simple clearing of the fault 118 code and a drive down the street solved this dilema. Engine now idles normally at about 850 RPM. Never dawned on me that a simple ECT could cause so much of headache. Will see if it does the trick. Evryone else who has seen this problem fixed their SC2 with the ECT. By the way the scan tool temp reading on the ECT was 12C after a 2 hour cool down. IAT was a balmy 55C. I knew then the ECT was bad.

[sierrap615]

Originally Posted by Martinhughes1

It just happens this SC2 had the plastic ECT with a visible crack (poor design).

bingo, lucky for us they fixed the problem.

FYI - for future reference, i saw a TSB a while back that said a large handful of 1996's had bad knock sensors, they were way to sensitive, detected constint knock, and a loss of power resulted, you may want to check the knock sometime with your scantool.

[Martinhughes1]

Any idea on the three digit designator of the knock sensor and the normal limits?

[sierrap615]

only other name i know if it is KS, don't know the numbers, but from the TSB it sounded they were very excessive.