Vue keeps shutting off

[Puppetmaster]

Wife just called me and said the Vue (2002 3.0L) shut off on her while driving. Luckily she got over to the shoulder. After a few minutes she is able to restart and drive for a bit before it shuts down on her. It keeps happening over and over again. She's close to her mothers house so she will leave it there for now. The vue shows no "check engine" light or anything out of the ordinary. She has a quarter tank of gas at the moment.

[K-1]

I'd put bets on a clogged fuel filter.

[greyhound bus]

If it runs perfectly fine when it runs, my first guess would be the crank position sensor.

[IMkenNY]

I bet its not the fuel filter, I 2nd the crank position sensor as the likely cause.

[Puppetmaster]

Thanks for the ideas guys., had it towed to the dealer. Found out it wasn't placed on a flatbed. Service manager states the rear differential could've gotten messed up as he smells burnt fluid (I have the AWD). Just my luck!!!! We'll see what they say.

[K-1]

I bet its not the fuel filter, I 2nd the crank position sensor as the likely cause.A bad CKP would set powertrain codes, would it not? Also, if the sensor was indeed bad, why would the engine start in the first place, without that critical sensor data?

[kaviation]

I don't think the CPS is wired in to the check eng. light. I have seen many cars with bad CPS's and have thrown no codes. My old jeep cherokee had a bad cam sensor, and never threw a code.

[IMkenNY]

A bad CKP would set powertrain codes, would it not? Also, if the sensor was indeed bad, why would the engine start in the first place, without that critical sensor data?


A bad CPS often wont throw a code and they are known for being intermittent.

[1saxman]

Check for corrosion in the harness/connector at that sensor. WD-40 is good for this.

[Puppetmaster]

Dealer has the Vue., hasn't even looked at it yet.,.,gotta wait til Tues.

This bites.,especially on this long weekend.

[F-Bobby]

im gonna have to agree with the other people that its more then likely a CKP Sensor. not too uncommon to see on older 3.0 vues. and it may not be throwing the check engine light on, but ill bet if they hook the tech2 up to it itll have a stored PCM code for the CKP sensor. As soon as the sensor loses track of #1 Piston it shuts the car off to prevent possible mistiming and internal engine damage.

[Puppetmaster]

Picking up the Vue tonight after work. They state it was something with the key/ignition system. They had to replace the whole unit and cut me a new key. (at least thats the info I could gather over the phone) Total cost of the work is $363 + tax. They said they checked out the differential and components and nothing seems to be damaged from the tow. I'll have more details tonight.

[Puppetmaster]

Picked up the Vue last night and met the NEW service manager.,I asked what happened to the last guy and he gave me THAT look.,said he's cleaning up all of the other guys messes.,ok cool, I left and ran errands like crazy.,.,drove perfectly. Wife drove me to the train station to go to work (I work in NYC) this morning and I didn't get 2 stations before she called me to say the same exact thing is happening as before. Turned around and sure enough I could get it to start but between 1 and 5 minutes it would shut off. Called up the new service manager and right off the bat he gave me a number to call to get it flatbedded over to him, at his cost. OK cool, now I come home and an hour and a half later he calls and states it's.,.,.,.,






ready????













you sure??????








The CRANK POSITION SENSOR!!!!!!! :yes:

Said he'll have it ready in about an hour and he's doing it for the cost of the sensor itself.

You guys are right on the money!!!! Thank you!!


Wifey is done though, she wants nothing to do with the Vue anymore.,.,dunno where we'll go with this. Tune in next time for.,., "AS THE VUE TURNS" (like the soap opera "as the world turns" .,., not that I watch that stuff ;) )

[Puppetmaster]

Gonna bring this back up as I think my cps went out again. This time the Vue was running fine. I left it in the garage for the last 2 days and sure enough it won't start. Gonna do a little research and see if I can test it to see if it's bad. If so, I'll be doing the replacement myself.

[AWDsaturn]

Hey,
I had a smiliar experience...I drove my 02 Vue and it quit. No rough idle, nothing, just quit. I would let it sit for awhile (cool off) then it ran again..no problem....I drove a couple of miles and it would quit again, no warning.
Long story short......had the "CPS" replaced and worked ok ever since.
The dealer said, the original "CPS" was breaking down under heat.

[IMkenNY]

Gonna bring this back up as I think my cps went out again. This time the Vue was running fine. I left it in the garage for the last 2 days and sure enough it won't start. Gonna do a little research and see if I can test it to see if it's bad. If so, I'll be doing the replacement myself.

Does it crank?
Does the security light continue to blink ?

[fdryer]

Gonna bring this back up as I think my cps went out again. This time the Vue was running fine. I left it in the garage for the last 2 days and sure enough it won't start. Gonna do a little research and see if I can test it to see if it's bad. If so, I'll be doing the replacement myself.

If this helps (because I believe we share the same 3.0L V6 engine), there are several issues to a no-start problem.

1-Absolute silence when turning the ignition key to START; no cranking of the starter motor. Battery, cables, ignition switch, wiring.

2-Starter cranks but the engine never fires up will be one of two issues, either the Passlock anti-theft system is enabled (the security icon is ON) while cranking the engine - effectively locking you out of an engine firing up OR the cps failed (no security icon illuminated). Check to be sure the security icon is off during starting (cranking the engine).

You may need to know that a cps will have approximately 1200 ohms of resistance when measured with a multimeter. If its open, failed, it may just be bad luck that you were stuck with two weak cps'. There haven't been many, if at all, cps failures from Vues with the 3.0L engine - same for the 3.0L L-series.

[Puppetmaster]

Yeah she always cranked. Got on it today and each time I tried to start she seemed closer to turning on.,,first it was just crank, then crank with slight sputter.,.,then it would try to start even further. Each time black smoke would come out exhaust.,,.then when she finally got going it was blue smoke initially.,.,now it's completely clean and she's running fine with no "service engine soon" or "check engine soon" light on. Haven had a chance to check cps, but now that she's running fine again, would I be able to still prove a bad cps?

I'm thinking the smoke was due to tha bad cps sending wrong signal to fuel and was detonating early (or late maybe?) as It came back, everything cleared up. correct?

[F-Bobby]

might want to get the fuel pressure checked. Sounds like the pump might be going.

[IMkenNY]

an intermittent CPS would fire at the proper time when it was working but could go several revolutions before firing.

The tach behaves erratically when the CPS is misbehaving.

[fdryer]

Yeah she always cranked. Got on it today and each time I tried to start she seemed closer to turning on.,,first it was just crank, then crank with slight sputter.,.,then it would try to start even further. Each time black smoke would come out exhaust.,,.then when she finally got going it was blue smoke initially.,.,now it's completely clean and she's running fine with no "service engine soon" or "check engine soon" light on. Haven had a chance to check cps, but now that she's running fine again, would I be able to still prove a bad cps?

I'm thinking the smoke was due to tha bad cps sending wrong signal to fuel and was detonating early (or late maybe?) as It came back, everything cleared up. correct?

This may seem out of place but in the beginning of your description it appears to mimic a failed coolant sensor. Too rich, as in flooded, until the engine turned over enough to clear out some of the fuel to start up. CPS' never operate this way, either it works or not. Even an intermittent one hasn't been reported this way. It wouldn't hurt to check.

As the last post put it best, there won't be any mistiming of any event, just the engine slowing down during failure until the cps outputs again. the signal will always be in synch since its just detecting the "teeth" in the crankshaft to develop the timing signals. One moment the engine's running, the next the engine is slowing down for the failed cps. No cps = no fuel pump operation, no ignition/spark, and no injector pulses, all while the engine is still turning from kinetic energy/momentum.

Perhaps you have a coolant sensor and cps failure.

[Puppetmaster]

I appreciate all the advice. I'll look into it and report back with my findings.