Hi everyone,
I had bought a 2004 crossfire convertible beginning of this year.
suddenly couple of month ago the car stalled in motorway.. (pretty bad especially in traffic jam.) it started after couple of tries of starting it came back and I could finish my trip to work.
But on the way back home I ended up having to tow it home when it stopped again and this time I could not start it again.
so I check the forum and it seemed like everything was pointing to the crank shaft position sensor so I swapped it out.

After that I found that the car was better but suddenly it started having a very hard starting issue.. intermittently. at this point the check engine light came back on and I swapped out the cam shaft sensor as well.

the car seemed to be the same still having to crank 3 to 6 times to have it started on a good day it will start in one go. but the check engine light went away,

as some threads were mentioning issues with better start during cold or hot.. I don't think mine is like this. I feel that the weather is no factor in my case.

Also I checked the RCM welding issue as well... welding seemed fine. no issue there.

once the car starts, it goes beautifully... Now it occurred to me if it's spark or fuel delivery.... I heard there were 12 spark plugs for this engine.. what happens one of the spark of 2 plug fail to the cylinder?
I'm no mechanic but unless the crank and cam sensors have failed again already... it feels there are no issues.. unless its the circuit as some threads mentions..

I don't know what to do...
In short currently car runs and goes like dream when it starts.. but very hard to start and seems this hard starting happens randomly...as sometimes it will start 3 times consecutively without hesitation.. sometimes it will start straight away but when I turn it off and try to restart it, it won't start and possibly need to turn the key 5 to 6 times in order to start it..

please HELP!

 

I would wonder about fuel delivery at this point. Options would be have the rail pressure checked, or buy a Forum Recommended filter/regulator (Needswings) and install. "If" the mileage on the car would warrant this I'm pretty sure replacing is cheaper than having it tested..

 

I wonder what code set the CEL. Did you think to have the code read?

When it fails to start and you have to "turn the key" several times - is it that it cranks over but wo'nt start - or is it that it won't even crank over?

 

It cranks strong everytime.. It did get P0335 and something else from my memory. it was as mentioned on the cam and crank shaft sensor thread.. so i replaced them.. and now there is no check light.
but starting problem is still there...
I will get some one to help me check the fuel pressure on the rails this weekend.


it sucks when it doesn't start... especially in public.. LOL

 

Has a familiar ring of our Texas to California girl..

 

I think you should go back and check the RCM solder points with a magnifying glass !!!

 

That is a Crank Position Sensor code. You DID get a BOSCH CPS, right?

Non-Bosch CPS's have caused people some bad headaches. Does YOUR head hurt?

 

Yup they are all bosch in there cam and crank shaft position sensor.

Also I did solder the RCM panel according to the forum recommendations.
I soldered it hardcore on to the panels.

thanks.

 

hi just for some one whomight be havijg the same problem...
finally solved.!!!

basically everything was perfect spark plugs sparking fuel flowing... and it was not starting because it was flooding...

something was making the injectors firering up for too long..
thought it was issue with ecu.. but it was a faulty cam sensor. not crank position sensor..

well I did order the bosch cam sensor but appearantly it was giving the reverse signal..
since it was giving out the signal nothing was detected.. mechanic had to test the sensors individually to isolate the problem...

anyhow I would not have realized the sensor would he faulty but I guess they are sometimes what they are... well it is always best to test out couple of thes cps sensors whether they are cam or crank.. it took me just over 2years meeting the mechanic who was keen enough to take a bite at it.

hope this helps anyone in need.

 

Thank you, after all of this time, sharing the solution. So many do not. It may save others a lot of headaches. KUDOS TO YOU.

 

So what you are saying is that the original sensor had failed exactly the same way as its replacement? This would appear to be true as there were identical symptoms present.
Something does not sound right here. Although the symptoms are that of a Cam Shaft Position sensor.
Reverse signal? What is that?
A weak signal or no signal is what normally happens when they fail.

 

well i'm not really an expert but what the mechanic told me that first instance engine wasn not starting because of flooding..something messing with the ecu to believe needed fuel?

he had his oscilloscope? testing sensors here and there.. fewdays later he told me the cam sensor was bad sendig wrong signal.. he mentioned on the oscilloscope that it should show (eg only don't know the specifics). short pos long neg repeat... when starting up but instead it was doing long pos short neg.. not sure exactly but wrong cam sensor signal may cause ecu to think that engine needs more fuel? may be messes up air fuel ratio? pouring in fuel so keep flooding when trying to spark?

dunno the technicallities but far as I know engine was flooding so it had hard time trying to start. which caused my starting motor to give up.. (which was expected from all that excess cranking) which forced me to tow it to mechanic.. (I live in an apartment so don't have a garage of my own to spoil my self.. lol )
than again lot of people suspected flooding or running too rich? because when it eventually started I could smell petrol.. and the smoke too...

come to thinkabout it, I had CPS problem prior to all this so I swapped it out. at this time I also ordered cam sensor and few more CPS later just incase..and I swapped the cam sensor to the new one while I was at it...

when this problem started I changed CPS, fuel pump, spark plugs and leads, fuel filter the list goes on but never looked back to check the cam sensor I installed... I mean it was a genuine part and never occurred to me to check it... I'm thinking only if I even changed it back to the previously installed one I could have saved thousands of dollars and the years of frustration... Lol

but the car now starts every single time which turned my stress in to joy.

thanks for the follow up hope it helps more experienced gurus to understand what may have happened. I'm no expert so I tried my best to explain what happened.

 

"And for that, we thank you."

 

But the problem started before you changed the original camshaft sensor.
I wonder what was the actual cause of your problem.

 

I think my Crank shaft position sensor died.. and when I replace crank shaft sensor I thought it was good idea to replace cam position sensor too.. wasn't a smart move... learned to leave stuff in if they are in working order....lol

 

Well I wish I had read this post earlier. My crank shaft position sensor died and when I had my mechanic replace the crank shaft sensor I had him replace cam position sensor too. Now I had purchased a spare Bosch crank shaft position sensor that I gave my mechanic to use but he then ordered a cam shaft position sensor from his local parts supplier which was of course generic and which of course began giving me this mysterious "hard to start" problem. Not knowing this I read through these threads and found this issue. So I ordered a Bosch cam shaft position sensor, put it in myself, this ones very easy to do, and viola, it worked like a charm. Many thanks for the post.

The Crossfire community is the best....