Hey guys. I'm new to the forum. I bought an 06 Evo 9 2 weeks ago from my dealer. Got traded in and I paid 11.5k for it. A week after owning it, it broke down. During the first week I was daily driving it with zero issues. Car drove perfect, or close to. Every now and then the idle would fluctuate but I smoke tested it right away and found the throttle body gasket is leaking. But other then the idle hunting on rare occasion, the car ran perfect.
But as I was driving to work one day, I was at a stop light and the car just died. Went to re-start it and it would just crank and not even try to fire. I towed it to my work (I'm a Volvo Technician) to further inspect when time allowed.
When I finally got to diagnosing I plugged in a scan tool and verified that there was no faults stored in the ecm. I thought I couldn't hear the fuel pump priming...so I popped off the fuel line at the rail and primed the vehicle and verified fuel was spraying out. Went with spark next. Verified no spark on cyl. 4. Tested all other cylinders and I don't have spark on any cylinder. I did some research (most google searches lead me to evolutionm.net haha) and found that crank position sensors fail commonly, or so it seemed. And people that replaced them were having the same symptoms I was having. So I started there. I got my scan tool (keep in mind, it's just a snap-on ethos..not an O-scope or anything too fancy) and monitored the crank position sensor. While cranking, the sensor was reading 188rpm's, which is about normal I believe. But there was also a "crank signal" that I could monitor and that always read off, whether the vehicle was cranking or not. So I inspected the connector for the crank position sensor and found there to be oil in it. I cleaned it out and tested again, still no spark. Decided maybe I should just remove the timing cover and inspect the sensor itself. Worth noting that during removal of timing cover I also performed a compression test (155psi across the board) and verified that timing was on and the belt didn't jump a tooth or anything. (Not that, that would cause the vehicle to not have spark..) When I got the timing cover off, I removed the sensor to inspect and found it to be burnt and pretty dirty. The reluctor ring is also dirty but I don't see any abnormal wear marks or anything so I decided to just replace the sensor. Ordered a sensor from the dealer, picked it up this morning and threw it in after work...or installed it half *** just to see if it would fix my concern. With the new sensor installed, I still do not have spark. Now I'm almost clueless on what direction to take next. Luckily I got the sensor for 80 bucks my price so I'm not too upset about that...but I did cut the old sensor harness to remove it and get it out of the way, and it looks like more work then it should be to install this sensor. (remove t-belt and power steering pump and some bracket)

If anyone has had this issue or has any advice it would be greatly, greatly appreciated.
I'm slammed at work right now and unfortunately working 6 days a week so it's been hard to find time to diagnose it...but I'm doing what I can! haha I suppose it's worth noting that the car is on stock turbo and supposedly tuned be english racing at 28psi. But I don't have any proof of that. I know it's hitting 28psi and the wideband is reading pretty accurate...14.7 ish while cruising and 12:1 under load. And I've only noticed a few hiccups sometimes while driving. I was going to retune it myself...but it needs to be running to do that. haha. Oh, I was also wondering if the tune could be why it won't throw a check engine light..? Also, the head was rebuilt 15k miles ago due to t-belt snapping and valves hitting pistons...according to previous owner, english racing rebuilt the head with oe valves and bronze valve guides...and pistons were not damaged...the vehicle does have 153k on it so I'm not surprised that something failed.

Thanks again for help. And Hi! Glad to be apart of the forum.

 

Have you checked crank sensor signal since the install to make sure it is sending a signal. When I had my new engine built I had the same issues with very similar symptoms and it turned out to be the crank sensor cuz the shop that did the work just put the one from the engine that blew back on. Swapped that and I haven't had an issue since, but it is kinda common to put the crank sensor on backwards. Seen a few experienced guys do it because it's real easy to do. N if you did that then it wouldn't read any signal from the crank still. If that's not the issue we'll work from there.

 

Sounds stupid but check ignition fuse. I'm only saying from experience. I replaced crank sensor, also cut wires to avoid taking off bracket for p/s, battery was not disconnected so I'm guessing that's what blew fuse. Either way I was chasing my tail for a while till I checked fuse. Worth a look. Good luck

 

Thanks for the input guys. It's been a while for me to respond. I've been super busy at work. But last Saturday I finally got the crank position sensor installed and routed the correct way. I don't know what changed, but after installation the car fired right up. I know the sensor wasn't installed backwards, it only goes on one way...and I'm a tech, so that would be embarrassing if I messed that up. haha. But yeah, got it to fire up after proper installation and then it would die right away. Smoked it and found a couple vacuum leaks that I wasn't aware of. Fixed those and the car has been running well since. But I did unplug the battery to replaced the vacuum lines and since then, the tune has been messed up. I'm not sure why or how that would happen. Because now under any amount of boost my afr's go straight to 10:1 and on decal straight to 20:1. On decal is fine, other than my wideband beeps at me because once it goes past 19:1 it sees it as out of spec. So I just bought a laptop and I'm going to re-tune it myself.
Thanks again for the input.