Crankshaft sensor

[Guest Motu 56]

I am thinking about changing out the sensor before it fails. How long did your sensor last before it failed? What was the lifespan of your harmonic dampner, coil, and ignition module.

I am thinking getting this done because my son will be driving long distances. The car has 90k on it.

[DAVES89]

I bought my Reatta with 113000 miles on it in Dec/06. The crankshaft sensor and harmonic balancer had been replaced. I did the coil upgrade last summer at about 125000 miles. If you are worried about it I would do it, as well as the radiator hoses and the surpentine belt. Then you should have less to worry about.

[D-a-n-i-e-l]

Do the CPS really go bad that often? I mean there are no moving parts. The only thing to make them go bad would be heat and/or misalignment. Am I missing something here, it just does not seem like a wear-out part to me.

[Guest jcc3inc]

Gentlemen,

The crank position sensor on our '97 LeSabre went out at about 90K miles; it quit as it got warm, and could be restarted after it sat a bit.

Jack C.

[Guest F14CRAZY]

I suppose the reason for them going bad is the plastic deteriorating and the internals being exposed to the elements. Mine seemed to be original and went was bad at around 134k miles.

With the age of these parts and the extreme environment under the hood I would go ahead and replace the harmonic balancer, CPS, and ignition module (with the later Delco unit, I say "1995 Park Avenue") to be sure they won't fail on your son at a bad time. They aren't too expensive nor difficult to do anyway

[gfranke]

I just had my crankshaft sensor and ignition control module replaced after my Reatta would not start. That fixed the starting problem, however, my 89 Reatta is now idling rough and is sometimes hesitating when I push on the gas pedal on the highway.

I had a local shop install the sensor and ICM and wondering if the sensor was not installed properly. Any ideas?

[Guest alex_houston]

My experience is that if the CPS sensor is installed wrong, and the car actually starts, it would destroy the sensor in a few moments and the car would die again. ICM kind of hard to mess up. I would look more at MAF sensor, and others. Good plugs and wires?

[JohnD1956]

Did the shop disassemble the coilpack/spark control module mount, and clean the surfaces between the pieces? If not have this done, or do it yourself. The pieces get corroded between there and the spark control module loses it's ground.

[Howard]

I purchased my Reatta in Aug of 1998. The car had just turned over to 80,000. The ICM was already leaking a green goo. I replaced both the coil pack and the ICM. The harmonic balancer started falling apart at about 150,000. That was replaced. The CPS sensor failed later in the day when I brought the car home. The CPS was replaced, only to fail again two weeks later. Both the harmonic balancer and CPS were replaced yet again to correct the problem.