Replacing The Crank Position Sensor On A 2002 Dohc

[yiranhu]

Just replaced the crank position sensor on my 2002 DOHC. I swear ford makes NOTHING easy.

Here's what I did. First the sensor is to the left of the crankshaft pulley, held on by one bolt. But there's enough things in the way that it is very difficult to reach in there. So here's the step I took to get it out.

1. Raise the front passenger side and remove the wheel.
2. Remove the splash shield (3 screws and 4 christmas tree buttons). There is also a 10mm bolt that hold ABS sensor bracket. You need to remove that too.
3. There is a plastic sheild on the other side of the unibody, held on by two 5.5m bolts. Remove the bolts to get that shield out.
4. Now there's a cast iron shield underneath the alternator, held on by 2 13mm bolts and a 13mm nut on the front and 2 more 10mm nuts on the bottom. The two bottom ones do not need to be removed, just loosened because that piece will slide out after the top 3 are removed. Remove this piece.
5. Now you have an unobstructed access to the CrkPS. Remove the 8mm bolt holding the sensor. Unfortunately, the sensor DOES NOT have enough clearance to come out.
6. Remove the serpentine belt.
7. There are three bolts holding the alternator. You do not need to remove the alternator, just move it out of the way a little. So remove the two bolts that are closer to the front of the car. Loosen the third one. Then move the alternator 1/2 inch towards the back of the car. Now there's enough clearance so remove the old sensor and reinstall the new sensor.
8. My sensor and connector has lots of oil on it. So I cleaned it with contact cleaner before reinstalling.
9. Now just reinstall everything in the reverse order.

Tools you need:
1. Serpentine belt removal tool
2. 5.5mm or 6mm 1/4" socket and extensions
3. 10mm 3/8" socket and a really long extension
4. 13mm 3/8" socket and several extensions.
5. 18mm MEDIUM length socket to remove the top bolt on the alternator. This one is a bitch cuz 18mm is NOT a common size. So standard sets will probably not have a medium length 18mm. I ended up using a 1/2" normal sized 18mm where the wrench only goes 1/4" into the socket.

enjoy!

Yiran

[mwt]

What caused you to change it?

Mike

[yiranhu]

My RPM reading seems to be occasionally offset by 500 or so. I.e. when at idle, it sometimes read 0 and would ramp up from 0 as I accelerate (but not an instantaneous jump). Other times it is okay. In a previous thread, some people suggested the crank position sensor which makes sense. The old sensor was very oily so I thought it couldn't hurt to try replacing it. But apparently it didn't solve the problem as the reading is still wrong. I originally thought it was the VSS as the car also has some shifting issues. And the speedo reading does not seem right either (when car is moving, the reading is sometimes below 0).