Mr. Beanz And His Bike Rides

This is the video I made after fixing my truck. A local mechanic changed the sensor some time back. I ended up paying over $600 vs his $300 estimate. After h replaced the sensor, he said I needed the fuel injection rebuilt because the engine light would not go off after is initial estimate. So he does the rebuild and my engine light will still not turn off. The $300 was to turn off the light and smog but he couldn't get it right. Yes I had a sheot fit!

He finally got the light off and smog certified. BUT the freakin' light went back on a few days later. I went back and had another sheot fit! He says that the only fix is to rebuild the engine since the code is a misfire of the engine. So I asked a few mechanics about the situation and all suggested to rebuild the engine. First of all, the truck runs fine, it's just the stupid light so I don't understand why the rebuild advice.

Years later my truck starts missing and now I'm thinking the engine is getting ready to go. The next day the truck leaves me stranded and I'm thinking a $2500 minimum rebuild. Great! So one day Gina and I head out to SART in her car and luckily we end up running into Alan who is a mechanic. I tell him the sit and he says no rebuild, check the code for the crank shaft position sensor since it is a common failure.

I don't have a code reader and $70 to plug in at the mechanics. He says he has a bargain priced read and even the inexpensive models work fine. So we take him out for a burger, for the use of the reader, I take it home and sure enough code P0335 (crank position sensor). Holy sheot!

Part is $56 at Auto Zone and $68 at Pep Boys. Guess which I chose! Wrong, Auto Zone part did not come with the shims required for older high mileage vehicles. AZ wanted $3 per shim and since they are only .020 thick, I would need 2.  Pep Boys also had a lifetime warranty but most important are the shims.

Why are the shims so important you might ask? Because the engine shifts, does whatever over the years and the parts ends up making contact resulting in a marring of the part. This old one was about .010 deep. So 2 shims equals .040 and the .010 cut marring result in a gap of about .030 which is the minimum gap required for this part.

IF IF IF IF you do not use the shims, the part is immediately marred upon installation and will register on the vehicle's computer once again as code P0335, crank shaft position sensor.

So that explains why the mechanic that did the work on my truck could not get the engine light to turn off for more than a few days. I'm betting my injectors didn't need a rebuild either, didn't run any better. If he had used the shims, I'm betting the sensor would have lasted much longer and my repair would have been half as much. So much for misinformed mechanics! I'm just a poo poo face guy trying to fix my truck and I can find the answers! Sheesh!

So anyway, if you replace your sensor and have the marring (scrapes) on the old part you removed, be sure to use the shims. I will make a big difference.

So now my truck is back on the road and running much better than ever because the code detects misfiring and now my engine light is off! Not bad $65 vs the $2500+ the local mechanics recommended!






Check this out! The top image is what the part "should" look like, smooth (thanks to photochop) and the second image is what the part looks like in reality upon removal. You can see the damage caused by the contact (square cut out). The shims were not present to achieve the required gap so the sensor was torn to sheot! No wonder my truck stalled out! Crappy mechanic!