Engine cuts off and steering wheel locks up randomly

Sometime in mid November I was driving about 30mph and my engine cut off and steering wheel locked up. Also my oil and battery lights came on on my dash. Once I put it in park it started right back up and was fine til early January. This happened again in early February and yesterday. What is going on?

I recently had an amp and a sub and head unit put in in May along with a new red cap battery. Is the system killing my alternator?

I have 130k on the engine.

The steering wheel locked up as in locked with the lockplate, or you have scrawny arms and can't steer without power steering?

Symptom is typical of a bad crank position sensor (stalling when warm and restarting with no CEL)
As for the steering lock, Ill second Scotts theory. The riv is a heavy boat to steer with no power steering at low speed. Will feel like you are trying to turn the wheels in cement.

Mr.Riviera wrote:

Symptom is typical of a bad crank position sensor (stalling when warm and restarting with no CEL)
As for the steering lock, Ill second Scotts theory. The riv is a heavy boat to steer with no power steering at low speed. Will feel like you are trying to turn the wheels in cement.

It's about the right mileage, too, for the crank sensor to croak. The OP will have to *tell* a mechanic to replace it, or replace it himself (it's not that hard but you can't horse the harmonic balancer or you'll rip the rubber). It won't show bad on scan tools -- on a Tech II it looks like a 'key off' event.

If it happens again, and you can't get it to restart after pulling over, take a rubber hammer, or other 15 lb object, and give it a whack in the center of the trunk floor. I did this for a few weeks when my fuel pump was beginning to fail. Worked every time, and once the new pump was in, has started up fine ever since.

Good luck!

I always get a crank and an immediate start, however, in park , at idle, and in drive the engine sounds rough, almost like putt putt . My check engine light is on and the code is p0300 for random misfire. Based upon these facts my mechanic doesn't think it is the crank sensor. He thinks it's an intake manifold problem and recommends changing those instead.

I ordered the crank sensor and he said he would replace anyway, but upon trying to do so, he was unable to get my harmonic balancer off. He used a metal pull tool with 3 inch bolts but was unsuccessful. He thinks maybe someone removed the harmonic balancer before and may have possibly used loctite on the bolts, thus him being able to get it off.

Thoughts?

RivieraRyan wrote:

I always get a crank and an immediate start, however,  in park , at idle, and in drive the engine sounds rough, almost like putt putt . My check engine light is on and the code is p0300 for random misfire. Based upon these facts my mechanic doesn't think it is the crank sensor. He thinks it's an intake manifold problem and recommends changing those instead.

I ordered the crank sensor and he said he would replace anyway, but upon trying to do so, he was unable to get my harmonic balancer off. He used a metal pull tool with 3 inch bolts but was unsuccessful.  He thinks maybe someone removed the harmonic balancer before and may have possibly used loctite on the bolts, thus him being able to get it off.

Thoughts?

Ask at a dealer parts counter what bolts to use to pull the HB - they typical puller kit does not have them. They are also listed elsewhere on this site but I can't find the entry ATM.

RivieraRyan wrote:

I always get a crank and an immediate start, however,  in park , at idle, and in drive the engine sounds rough, almost like putt putt . My check engine light is on and the code is p0300 for random misfire. Based upon these facts my mechanic doesn't think it is the crank sensor. He thinks it's an intake manifold problem and recommends changing those instead.

I ordered the crank sensor and he said he would replace anyway, but upon trying to do so, he was unable to get my harmonic balancer off. He used a metal pull tool with 3 inch bolts but was unsuccessful.  He thinks maybe someone removed the harmonic balancer before and may have possibly used loctite on the bolts, thus him being able to get it off.

Thoughts?

Based on that I'd go with the mechanic. You had said stalling when warm and restart with no CEL... so based on what you described before I'd say crank sensor.  It would  not be unusual for both to fail coincidentally.

There's a fancy little parameter on a good scanner called "Misfire Counter". The ECM keeps a rolling tally of how many times each cylinder is (or has) misfired. P0300 doesn't mean that the entire engine is misfiring. It could be only 2 cylinders. The CKP only monitors crank timing. That's how it interprets if one or more cylinders aren't firing. Every time there's a misfire, the crank timing gets thrown off for a split second.

Pardon my skepticism, but I doubt that "probably an intake manifold problem" is a good enough response to go ahead and have your mechanic replace intake anything, especially because of the price tag.

If your car is supercharged, I wouldn't replace intake stuff yet. If it isn't supercharged, there's a decent chance that the plastic plenum is melted internally causing the problem. The EGR pipe inside of it likes to melt and reap havoc on things.

Abaddon wrote:

There's a fancy little parameter on a good scanner called "Misfire Counter". The ECM keeps a rolling tally of how many times each cylinder is (or has) misfired. P0300 doesn't mean that the entire engine is misfiring. It could be only 2 cylinders. The CKP only monitors crank timing. That's how it interprets if one or more cylinders aren't firing. Every time there's a misfire, the crank timing gets thrown off for a split second.

Pardon my skepticism, but I doubt that "probably an intake manifold problem" is a good enough response to go ahead and have your mechanic replace intake anything, especially because of the price tag.

If your car is supercharged, I wouldn't replace intake stuff yet. If it isn't supercharged, there's a decent chance that the plastic plenum is melted internally causing the problem. The EGR pipe inside of it likes to melt and reap havoc on things.

This is a better response.