I've always been told and have read that the function of the crankshaft position sensor on 96+ OBDII models was to locate irregular crankshaft impulses and detect misfires, and simply set an SES. I'm now being told that it is vital for properly adjusting the timing functions.

Who is right, who is wrong?

I'm really stumped...any help?

 

It's for detecting misfires, which was mandated by OBDII.

 

What buttercup said....the sensor itself throws its own codes...54 and 55 if I remember correctly.

 

I had mine disabled for over 2 years on my 97 in preparation for the electric waterpump and double roller timing chain i was going to do. No problem with timing. The previous post was correct, its only for detecting misfires.

Bill

 

So it has no effect on ignition timing? That's my main question...

EDIT: Didn't see the two new posts...thanks.

 

my car has a miss in it could the cps cause my problem since I have already changed the opti, injectors, o2 sensors, spark plugs and checked the rockers and the pushrods

 

So me and joe was right, awesome. Now i guess we have to convince this to someone else...

 

If the engine actually has a "miss", it can't be caused by the crank position sensor.

If it doesn't have a miss, but you are getting high miss counts on a scan, a random misfire code, or flashing SES light, could just be irregularities caused by a mismatch in the cam and tuning.... anything that causes the crankshaft to move differently than the PCM expects it to will show up as a misfire. Hitting a pothole hard is enough to register a misfire (although not enough to flash the SES light).