Here's one that I just had to share with all of my Park Avenue/3800 friends out there. I've been chasing down a problem with my son's 91 PA. It started off that the engine just died and wouldn't re-crank. No codes. Having seen this before on my other son's 91 LeSabre, I knew that it had to be the crankshaft sensor. I just happened to have one of those around. I put it on the car, and it immediatley cranked up. Proud Papa ... until my son called me the next afternoon saying he had the same problem. I thought, well, it wasn't a new sensor so I bought a new one and replaced it again. The car wouldn't crank. Took that sensor back and replaced it with another. Put it on, the car cranked right off. We put the wheel back on and he test drove it. The car died after 3 miles.
I towed it back home and got it in the driveway. Reaching down, I pulled the connector off and reseated it. Car cranked!! I let it run for about 15 minutes and then it died. This time I actually noticed something that I was missing. When the ignition was turned to the on position, there was no Service Engine Soon light. Stange.
I couldn't even get it to pull codes. I then started inspecting the wires to the sensor and pulled them back to the top of the engine since they are hidden behind brackets. Found it!! Two of the wires were stripped bare about an inch and were shorting together. I spliced new wires in, re-taped them and put them in a plastic wire harness and re-routed them back down. Magically, the service engine soon light came back on at ignition and the car cranked immediately. No lights or codes. Now here's the strange thing. His speedometer that was acting crazy, was instantly fixed along with a transmission lockup issue. Amazing what a couple of bare wires can cause. Car is running smooth and perfect now ... like a PA should.
10-29-2006, 11:01 PM
Interesting Find
