[s-cars] '92 S4 won't start

[tedebearp at yahoo.com]

All, thanks for the comments so far.  The shop is in SF and has gotten high ratings, which is why I took the car there instead of spending $250 to tow the car home to my garage or a local shop. That doesn't mean I might not decide to take the car after all.  

I just got email from the shop:

> The crank sensor has failed no codes, we surmise that this occurred when the hose blew and water got into the connectors, Many of the plastic parts under the hood are deteriorated due to age, heat, possible oil contamination in the past. These all can lead to breakdown of the plastics.  At this time we have no spark and no injector pulse.  When testing crank sensor, signal line is flat.

The part number in the quote is the replacement Bosch camshaft sensor, not crank sensor.  It sounds like they actually tested the sensor and weren't relying on codes.  When I replaced the CPS, I used a ChenYang sensor from a group purchase on this list, and spliced it into the old sensor connector.  I wonder if the splices might have gotten soaked in coolant.  While I'm sure I used heat shrink tubing and electrical tape, it's not going to be watertight against a good dousing in coolant.

Keep the comments coming, they're helpful.  Thanks.

Sent from my iPad

> On Jan 4, 2014, at 6:15 AM, Peter <audionly at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I agree with Michael. The garage has either inadvertedly damaged the cam sensor by pulling on the plug-in which is right above that hose; or somehow possibly got water in the connection; or disconnected it and forgot to plug it back in. If you can find someone with a audi scanner in the area, it does have a diagnostic port (limited) that will tell you if there is a signal from that senser. Or, you can use a blink test. I don't see any way it could be the crank sensor. The only other thing I can think of is if they didn't know what they were doing and for some reason removed the timing belt/cam gear and now the timing is off by a tooth which won't allow the car to start. I smell a fish here. I would find someone else that knows the car to do a diagnostic.
> 
> 
>> On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 9:15 PM, <tedebearp at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> The little rubber hose under the intake manifold popped a leak last week, about 35 miles from home.  I topped off with water and hoped to make it home.  Unfortunately, the leak got worse and not wanting to blow the head gasket or warp the head, I had the car towed to a nearby garage (otherwise it would have been $250 to tow it home).
>> 
>> The shop repaired the coolant hose.  However, they said the car won't start, though it cranks fine.  The car was running fine when I parked it, and they drove the car off the flatbed truck and into the shop last week.
>> 
>> They think it's the crank sensor and said there's no signal from it.  They speculated that coolant got everywhere and shorted out the sensor.  They said it's behind the timing belt so they'd need to take all of that off to replace the sensor.  While they're at it, they'd do a timing belt job.  Total cost is about $1500.  I said I'd think about it and get back to them.
>> 
>> Does this sound right to you guys?  I think it's the cam sensor, not the crank sensor, since they said this sensor is behind the timing belt.  I replaced the CPS when I did the timing belt at 133k miles, which was 50k miles and probably 7 years ago.
>> 
>> Is it possible that there's a shorted ECU fuse?
>> 
>> Sent from my iPad
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