Car: 2004 Lancer ES
Ok. I'm not sure how many problems there are, but here it goes.

I stopped for a few minutes in a parking lot, took out the keys and put them in the cupholder. When i went to leave the car started right up, i put in in reverse and didnt even make it 2 feet before it just shut off and it hasn't started up since. When you turn the key it sounds like it should start (no weird noises or anything) but it just doesn't. I had my brother hook up his system checker and its giving 2 codes.
1: heat up catalyst efficiency below threshold
2: Crank sensor malfunction

The catalyst code has been there for a year or so but i believe the crank sensor code is new. I am waiting on my new crank sensor but i wanted to know a couple things.

1. Is there anything i should know before replacing the crank sensor?
2. Does anyone have any horror stories about doing the repair?
3. What is the code "heat up catalyst efficiency below threshold" and would it have anything to do with the crank sensor failing?

Thank you for any help!

 

The heat up cat code is probably because your 1'st cat (warm up cat) is clogged up or broken which is throwing off your 02 sensor. But I would imagine you would be throwing a 02 sensor code as well which is odd. The 02/03's would throw a code on the warm up cat because it would clog. The car ran rich from factory which clogged it up. That ended up being a recall from mitsu for me. I dunno if the 04's had the same issue but it may be worth calling up the dealer and finding out about any recalls.

As far as the crank sensor. I dunno. If the car sounds like it wants to start but simply wont. It could be your coil packs. Check to see if your getting spark. Coil packs can just die on you and you may just be missing spark.

 

OK, hopefully the new sensor will be in tomarrow and i can work on it. Oh and one more thing, if the timing belt broke or came off would that cause the computer to think that it was the crank sensor?

 

So I worked on it for a couple hours last night before i had to quit. I cant find the stupid thing. Should I be looking around the pully at the bottom of the timing belt or the pully below that?... Im assuming its pully at the bottom of the timing belt.

 

Ok so first off I am guessing you mean the car cranks and cranks but just will not fire up correct? The crank sensor would definately cause this problem. The crank sensor is what tells the ecu the engine is turning so if this is not sending any input then the ecu will not send a spark signal causing your no start issue. Also if your timing belt broke likely you would throw a cam sensor code.
Although sounds like your past most of this I will start from the beginning

To get to the crank sensor you have to pull off the two belts turning the alternator, ac pump, power steering pump etc. then you have to pull off the bottom crank pulley, if you have not yet you will need some type of impact wrench to make it easy on you. Then pull off the upper and lower timing covers and you should see a sensor right above the crankshaft timing gear held on by two bolts, probably 10mm IIRC.

 

Thank you so much for the step by step, But turns out its not the crank sensor. The crank shaft ate the teeth off of the timing belt. Im going to start a new thread for it but does anyone know that position the pullys have to be in?

Thanks for the help!

 

Here you go bro this is from another of my posts, you can see a notch in the camgear and a little pointer cast on the head, these two need aligned. Now the cranks has a little dot on the timing gear and the same on the block, these will also need to be aligned. If you do not know this unfortunately our engine are an interference engine meaning if the timing belt breaks there is a very real chance your pistons and valves hit resulting in minimum head damage to engine destruction . Only way to know is either pull the head or put on another belt and see if she fires up. Good Luck

 

wow, thank you so much.

 

Does anyone know the firing order?

 

Firing order should be irrelevent you have coil packs

 

haha, yeah after i posted that i got to thinking about it.

 

ok, now I do need the firing order. The diagnostic tool says misfire on 4 and i think its talking about the 4th in firing order.

 

Misfire on 4 is cylinder 4. #1 cylinder is closest to the timing belt and cylinder 4 is furthest away. So is the car running now? I recommend doing a compression test on that cylinder. If you bent valves or did any damage due to the timing belt your compression testor will tell you. It should be at least at 170.

 

Yeah, I have to wait for the morning to do the test but it is sort of running. Sometimes it will start up and idle fine, sometimes it will idle rough and sometimes it just sputters out. When you put it in gear it wants to sputter out so you have to keep throtle on it. And when you want to move you have to give it ALOT of throtle to move so its really down on power.

 

When I go to replace the bent valve what all do i need. Im assuming that will be replacing the head gasket and the gasket for the valve cover. Keep in mind that i am on a very tight budget, and thank you so much for the help.