Engine cut off on my wife driving to work this morning. Luckily it didn't cut out until she was rolling into her parking spot.

Symptoms after about 15 minutes of city driving :

1. Engine began running poorly
2. Service Engine Light flipped on
3. Engine cut off

It sat for about an hour from the time she parked it and I got there. I hopped in, turned the key, fired up and idled perfectly. THANKS TO THIS FORUM, I knew immediately what it was...CPS!

Waited about 30 minutes, turned back on, ran like a champ drove it back to the parking lot where my wife takes the van pool.

That sound like a CPS to you all? I picked up a Duralast brand from Autozone that comes with a 2-year warranty, so if it's a dud, I'll just keep swapping it out.

 

It will probably be a Bosch sensor in an autozone bag. Mine was.

 

When my CPS went it just cut off the engine. no roughness or engine light until it was off. Just like when the key is in position 2. Can't say for sure that every failure has the exact same symptoms but those were mine. Good luck.

 

remember to diagnose the problem first.

in other words, when it dies while its driving, throw a bottle of cold water on the sensor to cool it down to get back home.

 

And take a pix of it, or make notes of the spacer location before you pull it all apart. Signal output depends on a small air gap between sensor and internal teeth. See attached for a little background from Bosch. Please post in your followup the spacer location that worked for you. Thanks in advance.

 

Thanks everyone, really appreciate the input and help. I got it home from the vanpool parking lot last night (about 6-7 miles), stalled out twice. But at least it's in my driveway. (wish I would've seen the "cold water on the sensor" post before I left work, would have saved me a boatload of time sitting with the hood up waiting for the damn thing to cool off)

I've got the day off tomorrow so I can tear into it, I'm going to try and make it a point to get some good pictures for the other "visual learners" like myself.

 

I saw a post from one of the rover mechanics that said when installing the new sensor, hook up the electrical connector first, and then let it hang, because there isn't a whole lot of extra harness, and it will be hard to connect. I wish I would have known that when I replaced mine, it sucked connecting it again.

 

Noted, thank you!

 

For future reference....
2011-12-21_16-33-52_56.jpg?t=1324585120
2011-12-21_16-34-16_311.jpg?t=1324585142

 

No, this does not sound like a crankshaft position sensor failure. CKPS does not cause the engine to run rough or throw codes and the Service Engine Soon (SES) light does not come on.