Crank sensor

[IanA2]

Had a nasty moment yesterday when this went on one of my V8's.

No sweat, easy replacement and all is back to normal, but I was having a chat with my techie who reckons they are a fairly frequent failure, particularly on petrol engines and especially on V8's. Something to do with the heat generation that degrades the senor. Got me thinking, (as I have three V8's), should this be something one replaces routinely, at, say, 100K?

What does the panel think? Anybody else had that oh sh*t moment that could be systemically binned?

 

[stevesey]

Mine failed at about 100K - might be a good precaution to renew around then.

 

[jaymanek]

we replace loads! but normally they dont go whilst driving, usually the car will not start when hot..

 

[lynall]

Ian how much is the sensor?, just thinking of to berlin later this year and maybe worth either taking one as a spare or replacing now.



Lynall

 

[IanA2]

£71.10 + vat. I can't imagine it costs much more than a fiver to produce, but maybe it's stuffed full of platinum that I missed!

 

[Londonscottish]

I've had them go pop on both my petrol V8's at the 50-60k mark.

The first time it was intermittent - I was able to re-start once the car cooled down and drive it to BSG.

The second time was massively inconvenient - I stopped for fuel one weekday evening after a blast down the M40 and had to resort to low-loader...

 

[IanA2]

Jay,

Can you recall if it's mainly petrol &/or V8's you've been replacing them on? I'm thinking I should have the other two done too. One is 98K and the other 125K.

 

[DJC013]

Hello, just replaced the crankshaft sensor on my 2001 SLK 320 at 92700 miles, fault code was P0335.
The symptoms were either - 1. Cranks but not starting. 2. Starts and runs fine, then conks out after about 5 - 10 minutes (stranding the wife at the roadside for 3 hours) !!

I have fitted a new MB one (£90 !!) and all seems fine so far ! Fingers crossed !!

PS The dealer had one in stock, that speaks volumes from my motor trade days !!

 

[SG CL500]

Mine failed at about 80k, in france, in traffic returning from Le Mans, in roadworks that narrowed the d/c to one lane, about 2miles from the Chunnel.

Unfortunately it failed while i was crawling along and I didn't have sufficient momentum to move to either the hard shoulder or the other side of the cones. I wasn't popular!!!

We had a discussion about it on here - and I sent my failed unit to Televison (when he posted on here) as he was looking into a design fault.

Yes it's common - if you're looking for a standard replacement age - i'd recommend every 70k, not 100k!!! (if not before looking at some of the experiences)

Fortunately it's a common fault and most UK mechanics can diagnose from the symptoms immediately (unfortunately the French aren't as adept)

 

[stats007]

They seem to go much earlier on the V6s ~50k miles.

 

[grober]

Ian how much is the sensor?, just thinking of to berlin later this year and maybe worth either taking one as a spare or replacing now.



Lynall

Might be cheaper to buy them in Berlin when you are actually there????

 

[jaymanek]

Jay,

Can you recall if it's mainly petrol &/or V8's you've been replacing them on? I'm thinking I should have the other two done too. One is 98K and the other 125K.

Petrol V6's & V8's from 2000ish on...

 

[IanA2]

I'm guessing that they are not a sevice item at xK miles. One wonders if they should be.

 

[jaymanek]

no they are not at all.. one of those things like MAF sensors, pressure sensors etc that tend to cause silly issues..

 

[Howard]

I guess i've got that to look forward to then ...

Currently on 78k miles

 

[IanA2]

And at 125K the M Class decides to emulate the CLK

 

[BaldGuy]

Mine at 73K

 

[vijilants]

If I were buying another V6 or V8, I'd change it asap if the previous owner was unaware of of it being replaced.

Id rather be safe than sorry. I've had it go on my previous V6 and there is no warning when it happens and if it goes on you in full flight, it can be very dangerous and frightening......try steering a Merc with a loss of power steering and possibly also one shot at braking with what's left in the servo

 

[kajan]

I think mine went today :-(

I was driving and got about 0.5 miles from home lost power, then engine stalled. Tried to start and and it would churn but not start, engine warning lamp stayed on. Eventually it cooled down a bit, engine warning light went off and then started. does this sound like the right symptoms for this problem?

Any help much appreciated

 

[stevesey]

I was driving and got about 0.5 miles from home lost power, then engine stalled. Tried to start and and it would churn but not start, engine warning lamp stayed on. Eventually it cooled down a bit, engine warning light went off and then started. does this sound like the right symptoms for this problem?

That's pretty much it.