I just replaced the Crank Shaft position sensor and it did not fix my problem. I have two typical scenarios for my stalling problem 1) My car stall after you drive it for 5-10 minutes. It did this the other day after driving 10 minutes. I started after about a one minute of rest and I drive it right back home for 10 minutes without it stalling. 2) I can reproduce the problem about 90% of the time by driving it 5 minutes to my local recreation center where I play racketball. After it sits for one hour in the parking lot, it starts right up as usual, I start driving home and it will stall within the first 100 - 200 yards. When it stalls it fells like it just ran out of gas or is running on a couple of cylinder prior to shutting off completely. If you try to start it right away it usually will not start until you let the car rest for 30 seconds to 1-2 minutes. After it starts it will sometime run for another 5 minute or stall right away. Yesterday it stalled immediately after I got it started 3 times. One of those three times it just died out while I was trying to race the engine with the gas peddle while sitting in park. I mention this because that was the first time I noticed that and thought it might help point to the problem. In the past I usually had to drive at least a little bit to get it to stall. Then after letting it sit for a good 2 minute of rest I got it stared and drove home for about a 4 minute ride. For some reason, the longer I let it sits, I get a sense the better it will be when I get it started again. But I am only talking about the difference between 30 seconds and 2-3 minutes. This could be my imagination.

No engine check light ever comes on. From reading these forums, the other options are the fuel filter, the fuel pump, the cam shaft position sensor, the EGC sensor, the catalytic converter, or the distributor.

It seems like the best option I might have right now is to see if a dealer or repair shop can read something called "soft codes" or "sub codes" that can be read even without an engine check light. Is that possible?

Any advice will be appreciated.

Here is an update to my own post. I just drove 5 minutes to the supermarket and parked the car for 10 minutes. About 3 minutes in to my drive home the car started to stall as it usually does. I put the car in neutral and fluttered the gas petal at a rapid rate and the car came back to life. I was only able to do this once before. As always the car never stalls completely right away, but rather it seems like it is running on only a few cylinders prior to stalling.

I was going to change the distributor next, but when I think about this, if it was a bad distributor, would the engine really come back to life after fluttering the gas petal? It would seem more fuel related but if the fuel pump lost pressure, I'm not sure that fluttering the gas petal would bring back the pressure.

Checking the fuel pump pressure just before the fuel rail would give you an answer to it's condition. There is no direct tie between the accelerator pedal and the fuel delivery system that I've figured out. It's all sensors and air-flow that govern the length of time the injectors are allowed open. And the injectors' performance relies on the fuel rail having sufficient head pressure to put out a consistent volume of fuel per unit of time (fractions of a second of course ;))

One thought I'd like to throw out. Before plunking down the major bucks for the distributor/cam shaft sensor combo, take a really close look at the condition of the distributor cap, rotor, terminals and both ends of the spark plug wires. Also check the condition of the spark plug "boots" under the valve covers. These rubber seals under the valve covers seal the oil away from the spark plugs themselves. And like any "rubber" part exposed to high heat, they will harden and crack over time allowing oil to enter the area the spark plugs are in and grounding out the spark impulse before it gets to the plug itself. Of course, if you've already changed these out (usually done with the valve cover gaskets because they begin leaking after hardening too) then they are probably still in good shape.

My first thought here is the IAC or Idle Air Control Motor. It may even just be a disconnectwed wire to the unit. It sits just about under your throttle on the right side of the engine as you stand facing it. One of the wire plug in's is at the bottom of the unit and I had mine once disconnect, maybe from vibrations and was having similar acceleration problems. Without my forcing the gas it would stall.
This motor regulates your air intake and if not working right can cause a stall. Other people on line have had similar problems. I would check the connections first and if they are okay I would unplug while the car is running just after a start up to see if there is any change or not in the idle. If no change at all it may lead me to think that it is not working properly and not doing anything. If while she is running smooth and she flutters out or runs worse, it is probably okay. they are about $75. to $100. for a new one.
Also, you may consider a clogged fuel injector or fuel filter. Sometimes a clogged fuel filter will only act up upon heavier accel when you are sucking more gas and cloggs get pulled up and block flow or aftert he car gets hot and the sludge/debri gets gooey. Injectors clogging work off the same principal. Maybe run some injector cleaner through your gas. Should do this on a regular basis anyhow. I run some through every 3-5k miles as a maintenance.
As always, when a car stall it is one of three things 1) Air 2) Fuel or 3) Spark (I would also check out your air filter, a very dirty one can cause a stall also).
Just a few thoughts here as part of your process of elimination.
Good Luck,
Tom

Thanks to both of you for responding. I will take a look at everything you both said. I do have an oil leak so I will be checking that also. I was thinking of changing the sparks plugs anyway so I will be able to see if any of them are bad. On the 2.5L it seems like a lot more work because you have to take of the Upper Air intake manifold to get to the three rear plugs. I believe the oil leak is back there also. In addition I have some light blue smoke coming out of my exhaust with mean I'm burning oil. That could be oil getting on a plug(s) or worse. I'll also check the IAC.

You really do want to start with the basic tune up before replacing other components, although there isn't much to a basic tune up these days. Old plugs are always the first thing to check. When I bought my truck used at 40,000, it still had the factory plugs. I ran them for another 25,000, but when there was a skip that was the first place I looked.

Just to note, you can burn quite a bit of oil and not foul a plug in today's motors. If you do have one that looks worse than another, start with a compression check, then consider plug wires, etc.

Here is what I found. After everyone starting talking about oil and spark plugs I decided to pull the spark plug wires out of the front three cylinders. (can't believe I never did that). All three had oil on the wire and in the the bottom by the spark plug. I can't say there is a puddle there but when I put the spark plug wrench down in the hole, it came out with oil on the bottom of it. However, there is no oil on the top of the valve cover. Is it possible for oil to be coming up from the cylinder in to the spark plug compartment. I have not taken out the plugs yet to see what they look like. This sounds pretty bad to me. On the positive side, it probably has a lot to do with my stalling problem. :-)

The is an oil leak from the back of the engine (facing from the front of the car). It is very hard to tell where it is coming from. There is oil on what looks like three bolts holding on the exhaust manifold, but not above the bolts. Almost like the exhaust manifold is leaking. My guess it that it might be coming from the valve cover above the exhaust manifold. Anyway, this does not seem to have anything to do with the oil near the front three spark plugs.

No, it's not possible for oil to come up through the spark plug holes, at least on an engone that's not catastrophically damaged. More than likely the seals for the spark plug holes in the valve cover are bad, and are easily replaced with the vavle cover gasket.

Here's another thing: oil can foul up a lot when it leaks down the back of the motor. I had an oil leak from my valve cover gasket, and it was dripping down the back of the engine and fouling my crank position sensor. However, since you are getting stalling and hesitation rather than just on/off stalling, I suspect something emissions-related or fuel-related. I;d start by checking every emissions connection, hose, line, and I would pull the air cleaner and clean the throttle body out completely. And change those plugs and valve cover gaskets.

Also, check your fuel pump pressure. Do you hear any whistiling or whining coming from the rear of the car?

I don't hear any whistling or whining coming from the rear of the car. But I can hear the fuel pump come on when I put the key in the on position. Since it will not start right away when it fails, I was going to listen next time to see if I hear the fuel pump. Just about 100% of the time the car will not start after it fails. If i can get a fuel pump pressure gage it will be nice to drive around with it on the car.

I think I will change the value cover gaskets, plug, wires and clean the throttle body, and check all emission connections, and the report back.

Please do. We feel your pain.

Yes we do. Especially those of us that are going to be spending several hours with a couple of EGR valves trying to unblock them. I've got both my baby and my daughter's Moustang to do. Seems they don't like carbon build up much.

Took off the Air Intake Plenum tonight. When I pulled out the right rear spark plug wire there was about 2 inches of oil in the tube. I am sure the the problem is the tube seals. I am expecting this to fix my problem. I would like to take care of it this weekend if possible.

Does anyone have a tips for replacing these.

They are pretty straight forward. Pull the covers, pull the boots, clean and reinstall. The bugger is getting the plenum off to gain access to the rear. Oh, yeah, don't crossthread the plugs and don't overtighten them

I got the front done. The most time consuming part was trying to get the old gasket out of the valve cover.

I ccould use some advice on the rear cover

1) In the HOW to instructions, it that the rear cover has two 10MM bolts on the left hand side that are not on the front. Here are the exact words "If you are going to take off the valve cover be aware there are two bolts (10mm) on the left side that have to be removed. This is different from the front valve cover, as the front doesn't have these bolts." I don't see these anywhere expect on a bracket that does not seem to have anything to do with the cover. Did you have to take out 8 bolts vs the six that are obvious on the rear valve cover.

2) The left two rear bolts seem really have to get to. Did anyone have to take of the bracket holding the Power steering hose. The How To instruction said to remove the bolt holding the cable so the cable can be moved but the bracket is right behind the middle rear bolt. I was able to get this loose with a swivel, but can't get it out. I think it will be really hard to tighten also and at the same time make sure it is not being stripped.

Any tips on the rear valve cover removal would be appreciated. I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel :-)

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