The crankshaft position sensor is the most important
sensor on the engine. It is located in the left hand side
of the flywheel housing and uses a different thickness
of spacer for manual and automatic gearboxes. The
signal it produces informs the ECM:
- the engine is turning
- how fast the engine is turning
- which stage the engine is at in the cycle.
As there is no default strategy, failure of the
crankshaft sensor will result in the engine failing to
start. The fault is indicated by illumination of the
malfunction indicator light (MIL) on North American
specification vehicles.