Docile 64 Report post Posted December 8, 2007 Car: e36 1995 320I m50 engine I think my crankshaft sensor has gone out and bit the dust... when I have replaced my thermostat in the garage, all looked fine ( but i believe the cranshaft sensor got a bit wet) well anyways, fired up the engine.. ran for a few k's then pow... 0 RPM dead engine no power steering... fired up the engine again took a bit of cranking till the engine started.. and misfires everywhere... whole car was shaking.. engine had hard time gaining speed ( felt like running on 10 horsepower) rev wont go up over 2800 rpm.. when it reaches that 2800rpm it backfires and revs goes down then back up again... I havnt touched anything else besides the radiator, radiator fan and the thermostat housing... so this afternoon i decided to do that freakin job of troubleshooting the sensor.. followed the crankshaft wire under the intake and unplugged it.. sprayed some contact cleaner and placed it back on fired up the engine and still misfiring.. turned off da engine, unplugged the sensor and fired up the engine.. still misfiring.. conclusion: even when the sensor is plugged or unplugged it still misfires?? faulty sensor?? or is there something else?? ive had this happen to me before but went away after a few days and would start up normally in cold starts.. but now it wont:( If it is the crankshaft sensor, where would be a good place to buy one?? new??? second hand?? cheers Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
barf 0 Report post Posted December 9, 2007 the sensor on the front balance wheel is not used by the ECU, only for diagnosis connector. ECU uses a sensor in bellhousing. VR sensors are incredibly reliable i would investigate other things first. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Docile 64 Report post Posted December 9, 2007 hmm taken out the sensor and checked for resistance.... its within the Ohms stated in the bently manual.... so its still working... must be something else... ive read bimmerforums.com, and there is like a 80 page thread about this... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jonty m50e30 0 Report post Posted December 12, 2007 I had a similar issue with the camshaft sensor on the m52b28 similar symptoms but intermittent - the diagnostic machine found nothing when the car was going fine so I had to drive it straight to an auto electritian when it appeared and the diagnostic found a fault with the cam sensor - replaced at huge expense from BMW and problem all sorted. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
*Glenn* 854 Report post Posted December 12, 2007 Problems like this should be scanned first with a good scanner. Before you start fiddling Will save alot of time & grief Cheers Glenn Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
hotwire 352 Report post Posted December 13, 2007 Problems like this should be scanned first with a good scanner. Before you start fiddling Will save alot of time & grief Cheers Glenn Agreed on that one Glenn Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites