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The other night my 2001 Optima quit running. When I pulled the front cover apart, I had found that the balance shaft belt had lost most of its teeth. The timing belt is still in tact! I will be replacing all of the belts since I have it apart, But my question is....The crank sensor doesnt look damaged. Is there a way of testing it with a meter? I dont want to go thru the hassle of replacing all of the belts and putting it back together just to find it still wont start. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
yes replace the sensor just to be safe, its a hall effect sensor and they are finicky, thats why chrysler stopped using them in the late 60's and early 70's on their ignitions
I just replaced one of those sensors on my 2001 Optima. I paid $120 for it at the local Kia dealership. Autozone has the identical sensor for $70. You can test it while it's still in the engine and connected. To do this, remove the pins from the sensor connector and insert them back into the socket connections of the main wire harness (see photos). With your meter set for DC, measure the voltage between the black and blue wires. With the crankshaft fin positioned in the sensor slot, you should read a logic high (5 VDC). When the fin is moved out of the slot the voltage should read about 0 VDC (logic low). If you measure the voltage while cranking the engine, you will see an average DC voltage of about 2.5 VDC if the sensor is working. Otherwise, the voltage will be a steady high or low.
I had to remove the power steering pump and mounting bracket to gain access to the cable route in order to replace the sensor. My sensor was physically damaged, which confirmed the steady state voltage from the sensor when the crankshaft was turned. I think the damage was caused when teeth falling from the timing belt got pushed through the sensor by the crankshaft fins.
Last edited by BioWayne; 12-16-2007 at 02:34 PM.
Reason: Content revisions and added photos
I have an '02 Optima LX that is returning P0335 code (faulty crankshaft position sensor). Where the heck is that thing? I want to check it, but I cannot find it.
My Optima stopped running while I was driving to the family Christmas...it was actually lucky for me that I had family close by and a car trailer.
I have an '02 Optima LX that is returning P0335 code (faulty crankshaft position sensor). Where the heck is that thing? I want to check it, but I cannot find it.
My Optima stopped running while I was driving to the family Christmas...it was actually lucky for me that I had family close by and a car trailer.
The sensor is inside the timing belt compartment on the left side of the engine as viewed from the front of your car. You have to remove the lower cover to see the sensor. I've attached a pic, which was taken from right front tire point of view. The pully in the lower left is the cranckshaft. The pic was taken after I removed the sensor. If you do this yourself, be careful. The sensors are real easy to crack if not installed carefully. Once they crack, they usually don't work. Good luck.
Last edited by BioWayne; 12-29-2007 at 02:36 PM.
Reason: Added photos
on some models there was actually an american recall on the crank position sensors. you should have a green sticker under the hood on the upper right part of the firewall if you ckps has been switched to the correct one
we were gonna change the sensor until we noticed that the timing belt looked chewed abit and then the oil pump belt was broke. i was told that the sensor helped save the motor.
I really do feel bad that I never really noticed this thread until now. Because my optima fell ill last night while we were driving home from Wal-mart. The engine just seized, but we were lucky that we could get off the road. She wouldn't start for 10 minutes, so I let her rest. She started back up again on to have the CEL stay on. We made it home ok, but I was VERY careful driving home since I didn't know what was wrong with her. Well after finding out what the code actually meant I was SHOCKED to find out how much the crankshaft position sensor was... sad. NEWayz, just wanted to throw my $0.02 into the pot and see if the install is easy. Because that's what the guy at autozone told me, that it would be an easy install. Doesn't seem like it from the pictures that BioWayne provided. NEWayz, let me know. Thanks!
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Optima 2.4L timing belt/crank sensor
Linear Mode
