Car shuts down while driving

ROBERT HINES2

MEMBER
1995 MITSUBISHI ECLIPSE
2.0L
4 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
149,000 MILES

My car was driving fine went to VA medical center, came out started car and drove about three blocks and car shut down, no spiting and sputtering. Put in neutral and car started in a second like always. Now car just shuts down when ever it decides to. Fans work, no overheating. I have new MFI/ASD relays no problem. Car will sit and idle and never shut down. New battery and transmission rebuilt in March 2017. I am at a loss. I can drive for a block, or two miles or quarter mile and car shut down still.

4 Replies

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,871 POSTS

Start by having the diagnostic fault codes read and recorded. The people at many auto parts stores will do that for you for free. You described the classic symptom of a failing crankshaft position sensor or a camshaft position sensor. They often fail by becoming heat-sensitive, then they work again after cooling down, sometimes up to an hour.

There are fault codes indicating the signal was lost related to one of those sensors, but often those codes do not have time to set in the little time it takes for the stalled engine to coast to a stop. In that case you need a scanner to view those signals and see if they are listed as being present during cranking while the no-start is occurring.

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Thursday, June 22nd, 2017 AT 3:30 PM

ROBERT HINES2

MEMBER
3 POSTS

By using egnition codes it comes up with 12 then 11 then 22 then 55 which I read 55 means end of codes or no more. I changed camshaft sensor and that did nothing. I will have to wait to get crank position sensor tomorrow when it comes into O'Riley's autoparts. 22 is apparently the crank position fault. So I will see tomorrow. Hopefully!

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Thursday, June 22nd, 2017 AT 6:41 PM

ROBERT HINES2

MEMBER
3 POSTS

Thank you big time for your help. It was the crankshaft position sensor. The old one had a dry thick coating around the magnet cover, so I assume someone was using an additive to stop an oil leak in the engine. Maybe it could not function right. $83.00 for crankshaft position sensor and I went ahead and put another camshaft position sensor cost $36.00 just because. Lol! I am a disabled vet and I have appointments at VA hospital so I cannot risk my car being down. Thanks again Caradiodoc! You just became my new best friend I will never meet!

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Friday, June 23rd, 2017 AT 9:09 AM

CARADIODOC