My Smart Died while driving!

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Permalink Reply by Ian Pellant on June 15, 2009 at 9:35pm

Must be a very rare failure on a new car. A web search for "Crankshaft Position Sensor" shows a lot of hits, so it's a common component to fix. Without it, the ignition timing has no idea where the pistons are in relation to top dead centre of the stroke and the ignition timing will go erratic or shut down. I have no idea if the smart sensor is inside the crankcase or external... I would guess external and the fault could be something as trivial as a loose connection.

Please post when it's fixed and let us know what the experts tell you.

Most of the smart sensors are shown on Evilution: http://www.evilution.co.uk/index.php?id=495

Sympathies for the loss of confidence in the car... I've had some new cars in the past that I wanted to scream: "Lemon!" after the first month or two... my own smart is lemon colored, but is far from being a lemon... no problems at all.

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Permalink Reply by Seumas Warren on June 15, 2009 at 11:34pm

Well, I will admit that my last sentence is a knee jerk reaction to my situation. The smart dealership has my car and I was informed today that I will not get it back till Wed as they had to order a part. The lady that called me did not have the details of what part their service dept ordered so I do not know if the code I got from my code reader is the actual problem. But I will post all the information I get to help further add to the knowledge base that is this forum :)

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Permalink Reply by FIATman on June 17, 2009 at 1:02am

I have an unrelated question. What is your opinion of the Actron device? I have been thinking of getting a code reader. Hope your car is back soon. I love mine.

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Permalink Reply by Seumas Warren on June 17, 2009 at 8:17am

It is ok, I thought it was a nice one until I let my fathers neighbor (a master mechanic) up in TN take a look at my Maxima and he used a professional one that made mine look like a toy lol. But all in all it is a fine device for the backyard mechanic or for anyone who just wants to be able to read the codes the car is spitting out. I just like knowing what is going on. On my Maxima that was giving me stuttering problems the Actron got the the code for a Knock sensor out of range and low and behold my fathers neighbor got the same code on his professional code reader. So, in my opinion it is a good thing to have a code reader no matter which one you get. I have the Actron AutoScanner Plus CP9180.

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Permalink Reply by FIATman on June 17, 2009 at 5:17pm

Thanks, and glad your car's fixed

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Permalink Reply by Uwe Suemper on June 17, 2009 at 4:43am

My actuel 451 is my third one. I had never any problem and my one has 125 HP and is driven in a strange way. So feel well it is only a small problem.

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Permalink Reply by Seumas Warren on June 17, 2009 at 8:19am

125 hp? Dam, what did you do to the engine to get 125 hp??? :) I am curious.

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Permalink Reply by Seumas Warren on June 17, 2009 at 8:34am

Well today is the day I am supposed to get my smart back. As soon as I do and get the low down of what the problem was I will post all the details and info I get from the dealership.

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Permalink Reply by Seumas Warren on June 17, 2009 at 2:13pm

Ok, just got my car back, here is the low down on what was wrong with it....................... It was the Crankshaft Position Sensor lol, the service manager at the smart center in Coral Gables (miami) FL said that this was the first time they have ever seen this part go bad so hopefully it was just a fluke. Gotta love having a code reader, it was dead on, or should I say the car was dead on with what the problem was with itself. I get the honor of being the first one with this issue (at least at their center). Lets hope on my trip to Central Fla this weekend I get no more surprises!

The sensor is external but way in the back and a pain to get at and the engine has to be cool otherwise OUCH!

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Permalink Reply by Ian Pellant on June 17, 2009 at 8:02pm

Great; you're back on the road and if you had the inverse luck with lottery tickets, you'd be rich by now... a one in a million. It's extremely unlikely to happen again.

I had a browse through a few of the web articles on the crankshaft position sensor. Almost seems a game as to where the engineers locate them. Some are off the cam belt; the 95 Jeep Grand Cherokee has it on top of the bell housing and under a shift cable... a sod to get to. It's not the size of the vehicle but the location and work space around bits that count.

It seems that if the tachometer starts going erratic and some miss-firing happens, it can be an early warning sign of the sensor failing

Have fun, enjoy your smart.

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Permalink Reply by Seumas Warren on June 17, 2009 at 9:52pm

I spoke too soon! My car died on me AGAIN!!!! I didn't even make it home! Now I'm starting to get pissed. This is same problem now for the second time, if it happens again, the same thing, I'm going for the lemon law and get my money back.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Pellant on June 17, 2009 at 11:21pm

Ouch!
... couldn't be the sensor itself? That would be far too rare to happen; wouldn't it?

Sounds a wee bit suspicious... more like a loose connection / broken wire; or something a little more insidious.

I wouldn't blame you for screaming "lemon". It should be an easy fault to fix permanently, but until you've managed to drive a few hundred miles locally, I'd be nervous about any long trips.

Keep plugging the service guys and let's hope they find the real fault this time.
Good luck.

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