98 Catera Crankshaft Position Sensor Replacement - Cranks Won't Start

[TxSabresFan]

Thank, this post just saved me a bit of cash. Bought my 2001 Catera in 2003 for $12,000 with 19,000 miles on it. I wa working as a used car saleman for a bit when I first retired from the USAF awaiting test dates for my current job. A couple of the guys I worked with were retired auto builders that worked for Cadillac and they swore up and down that the Catera was one of the best cars Cadillac ever built. Honestly, I can't complain as I've had only a few problems and I do love the car.

I did experience a few problems over the past 3 1/2 years. A few months after buying the car the check engine light started coming on for a few weeks at a time. I was having battery issues, which I solved, and at first attributed the light to this. After fixing the battery issue, the check engine light was still coming on so I took it to the dealer (at this time it was under factory warantee) and they told me they were getting a bad code and could not determine the problem. I asked what they ment by a bad code and was told that the code they were getting was for contaminated fuel. Ok, stuff happens and not all fuel vendors sell good gas, but he then went on to say that there is no sensor on the Catera that makes this determination, so it must be a bad code. I had the car in at the dealer 3 times over the next 2 years trying to solve this and finally just drove with the dang light on all the time. Every year prior to emmissions testing I would have to pull the negative terminal to clear the computer then drive for 50 miles to get it to pass the inspection. This year however, it would not pass.

I dreaded taking it back to the dealer as I was pretty sure by now they were clueless so I took it to a local mechanic recomended by some co-workers. I stopped by after work (I work graveyard shift) and he told me to bring back the next morning and that he would research the problem on the internet. Dropped the car off and he called me at noon to tell me it was the mass air flow sensor and I could pick the car up at 5pm. He charged me $230 and it passed inspection without a hitch.

That last few weeks I've been noticing that when I go to start the car after work that sometimes I would have to crank it twice to start. We've had a ton of rain lately and I thought it may be a problem with humidity until one morning it would not start. I oulled up this site and read this thread and the issue you desrcibed was exactly was I was experiencing. It would work fine for a few days then would not start. The next morning it would start just fine.

Well I called O'Rielly auto parts and they had a new CPS for me that same day for $34.99. Put it in this morning, thanks to the wonderful instructions here and it seems to be working just fine. I let you all know if it doesn't. Thanks!

[Steven420]

A couple of the guys I worked with were retired auto builders that worked for Cadillac and they swore up and down that the Catera was one of the best cars Cadillac ever built.


off topic i know but seems odd that Cadillac Mechanics think its the best caddy ever and caddy didnt even build it...
i would think they would know that...if they dont then id say your listenin to the wrong people

$0.02

[lambz]

Hey...I gave a very concise description of this fix a while back. Do a search under my name and you'll find it.

[Aleksus]

My Cady Catera 1998 has RPM about 450-500 all the time and no any lights like check engine or somthing,no problems with running and starting at all,just low RPM when you don’t drive. I ran diagnostics at the shop and they found out that crankshaft position sensor needs to be replaced and they wanted 400$ for that. So yesterday I replaced crankshaft position censor like I red on this forum. It was not so hard I spent more time to get a good one from another Cady ( i got used one) then to put it on mine. So as a result- NOTHING!!! A same thing!!! 450-500 RPM with another crankshaft! How I understand if crankshaft died it means no start engine ( like usually) and in my case I might have no good crankshaft sensor but I can't bealive that another one is a same! Cuz I’m preatty shure that another one was good cuz I know that car was running greate. So my question is what’s a main reason of it? I dano what I need to do now…Any ideas???

[Cadi Cat]

That's normal idle for these cars, sometimes mine dips lower than that if it's been running for a while.

[Aleksus]

Originally Posted by Cadi Cat

That's normal idle for these cars, sometimes mine dips lower than that if it's been running for a while.

Truly i'd say that its hard to belive that its normal idle for these cars becose the engine shakes too much, and also when i turn A/C on ...oh man it shakes all inside and even my rear passengers on the back seats really feel that...

Furthermore my brother in low had a same car and i was driving it and i can say it was a big difference and it had idle about 800-900 RPM
And also i got diagnostics at the shop and they found out that crankshaft position sensor ...

so...

[Aleksus]

anyway thanks for advice

[Cadi Cat]

well mine purrs at between 375 and 500 smoothly. Maybe the earlier models are a little different. I drive a 2000. Had my sensor replaced also but didn't have any early warning symptoms. It just died, cruising along. No engine light... nothing!

[Aleksus]

You know what? I'd say that it's not normal,you know,it's not normal.I really don't like this. If the engine has so low RPMs it means that it has hard capacity on it,espesially when you turn on A/C,the ligths, the radio and something else...you know what i mean don't you? Thats no good for ur engine... But i'm not gona live it this way,you know. I wonna find the problem and i hope i will. i gonna replace as much parts as i can to find out what's going on with my car.I'll be work on it. i'll tell you how much i'll got done and what i did for that. I'm going to replace DIS-module tomorrow and after that we'll see...

[dwheeler]

The bonus question: There is hose dangling that is not connected to anything. I have the same thing now after changing my sensor. (The car just stopped running on the highway was my symptom. I got a code reader and it said bad sensor). Where did that hose go? I can't find anything to connect it to.

[Aleksus]

It depens on wthat kind of hose you found. I found a black hose and it was not connected to anything .I spent mine time to find what's going on but i couln't find anything. I asked another people and you know what? I found out that it was no problem. This hose just needs to be disconnected because it's like pressure line for the ATF fluid and it goes from the top of the tranny. So it all good in there and i don't worry about this anymore

[dwheeler]

I was hoping it was some kind of atmosphere vent. I sprayed some carb cleaner around the area to see if it raised the idle (a standard vacuum leak check) and there was no change.

[Aleksus]

I cleaned my injectors in a shop. They didn’t take them of they just put like an av thing inside and put chemicals in there to clean it up, but after that nothing changed...

[pauliep]

I had the same symptoms - the car would start and run perfectly, then die while driving, or fail to start on several long cranks, then kick right over. It was the CPS. I had the car at my local mechanic for a week and he couldn't figure out what was wrong. I checked this forum and then my dealer replaced after I told them what it was.

it's a major and totally incompacitating inconvenience.

[tsatawa]

Perfect symptom description...Perfect connector and CPS location pix....Found sensor at a local in-stock Mom-and-Pop parts place for $45...Auto=Zone and Murray's were both $85....ALSO...Murrays loaned me the "Mac Tool? to diagnose the problem throught he OBD2 connector..for FREE...
Thanx Agian....Problem fixed for less than $50..Not including the $150 towing...
Final Comment....Why in the world was the "Check Engine" light not programed to illuminate?