Hello Scotty and Friends! I replaced the crank sensor on my Ma's 03 corolla recently. On startup it hesitated and stalled out. I tried it 2 other times and the 3rd time it held an idle ok but stalled out when putting it out of park. I did some more research online and it looks like the car will need to relearn the crankshaft position. They recommend a scanner tool for the process but that might be too expensive for me at the moment. Can I get by with leaving the battery unplugged overnight and trying again the next day after some of the memory clears? Will setting it to TDC before start-up help?
Thanks alot
you can do that and basically after you're driving for two or three days it should just reset itself on that thing it's not that new
Hello Scotty, Thank you for answering this. I think I have it going now, I'll explain for anyone else who runs into the same issue. The car was stalling out but still starting up and revving up so-so with the new crank sensor. I propped up the gas pedal and held the engine around 1.5k rpms while I hunted around the engine bay for vacuum leaks using propane enrichment and pinching off some other hoses. I found no problem but steadily the engine went from running very rough and sputtering to gradually becoming smoother. After about 12min or so the engine was sounding alot better and I was able to change gears and baby it around some. The car ran a little better after more passes and I was able to take it onto the street and eventually the highway. My guess is that the ECU had logged all of the data coming off of the old crank sensor and had trouble finding TDC with the new one, even if it was OEM and better which caused the stalling problem.
To everyone, be careful with some of these shady mechanics out there. My Ma was working with one that swapped out all of her OEM Denso parts for some cheap Chinese junk. He was probably trying to milk her over time. Do your research and DIY what you can. Thanks again scotty for all you do 