Shuts off while driving and on hotter days it will not start, is the crankshaft position sensor causing this to happen?

ALE2

MEMBER
2016 DODGE JOURNEY
AUTOMATIC
66,555 MILES

My car just quit running while driving one day. I’ve driven it since then, granted as little as possible as I cannot get it fixed quite yet. But it has shut off while driving and then instantly start. Other times, on hotter days i’ve noticed, it wont start. It sounds almost as if the battery is dead and it just wont turn over. If I let it sit, it starts after a while. The error code is the crankshaft position sensor but different shops are telling me different issues.

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

The short answer is yes. That is the most likely cause of this. The crank sensor is a sensor that is sensitive to heat and when they get hot, they don't tell the PCM where the crank shaft is and so it shuts the injectors and plugs down because it assumes the engine was shut off.

Here are some guides that will help with this:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/symptoms-of-a-bad-crankshaft-sensor

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/crankshaft-angle-sensor-replacement

What was the actual code that you got? There are various causes for each code but if we run through the testing for the code then we will be able to figure this out.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/checking-a-service-engine-soon-or-check-engine-light-on-or-flashing

Below is the process on how to replace the crank sensor from the manual if this is what it proves to be the issue.

Let us know what you find. Thanks

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