96 Windstar...code 0351 issues....

[kellit]

Okay ya'll....please bear with me here. I am new at this vehicle thing. lol

My husband takes really good care of our vehicles, first and foremost. There is a problem with our 96 3.8 Windstar. The check engine light is on and it is giving a code of 0351. He is saying that this is pointing to the ignition coil. Now, on May 13th he replaced the ignition coil, crankshaft sensor, new spark plug wires and new spark plugs. The problem that it is doing, along with the check engine light, is that from 0 - 35 mph it hesitates, sometimes stalls, until it goes higher than 35 mph. After that everything is fine. It acts normal. So like on the highway at 60, 70 mph, everything is great, but the minute he gets it down to 35 or lower again, the hesitation starts, the stalling, etc. He has to practically baby it in the city. One other thing is this problem is intermittent, but has been happening a little more often since the 13th when everything was replaced.

Last night we were testing different things and we found that the connector to the crankshaft sensor is getting no voltage at all. It should be reading battery voltage, but instead, none at all. He has tried to trace the wires to see if there is some kind of breakage in the wiring, but to no avail.

Any suggestions, outside of taking it to the mechanic, YET AGAIN (for different reasons) ????

Thanks so much,
Kelli

[wiswind]

P0351 is a ignition coil A primary circuit malfunction.

There are 3 coils molded together in the coil assembly.
The primary side is the input side, which is driven directly by the PCM.

The secondary side is the side that the spark plug wires connect to.
Coil A drives spark plugs at cylinders 1 and 5....one at each end of the secondary coil.

One side of each primary coil is connected to the battery voltage through fuse 20 in the I/P fuse panel.
The PCM momentarily connects the other end of each coil to ground to energize each coil's primary winding.

From reading....it is POSSIBLE that a problem on the secondary side can cause this fault.....so you might check the spark plug wires, and even look at the spark plugs.
Spark plug #1 is on the back side, passenger side.
Spark plug #5 is on the front, center.
I mention this because it is one of the easier, and cheaper things to deal with.
Yes, it is possible for a new spark plug wire to be defective......but check to make sure that they are still firmly seated at both ends.

There is a troubleshooting process....I would get a manual to follow as I would certainly mess it up.

Coil A (also Coil 1) pimary side pins on the coil connector are Pin 4 (hot when key is in the ON or START position
Pin 3 Dark Blue with Light Green stripe wire goes to Pin 26 on the PCM connector.

I would expect the CEL to be flashing when a misfire is detected.

Camshaft Position Sensor
Red wire is +12V When ignition key is ON or START
Black with White stripe wire is ground
The 3rd wire....I cannot cross the listed color code of D/BO...is the signal that goes to the PCM pin 85
Common failure with the camshaft position sensor is the electrical connector.

Crankshaft Position Sensor
I have not found it in a electrical diagram.......
TSB # 96-179 is the only TSB that I have found for this sensor.
It is relative to Codes P0300-P0306 with NO drivability concerns present.
Does not sound like your issue.
The solution was to clear the stored "drivability" information from the PCM by removing the negative battery cable for 5 minutes.