'03 AWD Engine Suddenly Stalled out wouldn't restart

[Dennis]

'03 Vibe has been acting up for the past two months. Only 46K miles on it. Earlier on the engine would stall out and idle roughly to start.
Swapped a spark plug on the driver side cylinder (cylinder 4?) with no improvement. Then switched the spark plug coils and determined that one was bad and replaced one.

It did run better once it was running but would still cut out completely while driving at times. I bought a second coil code reader indicated that cylinder 2 was misfiring but that didn't improve things.

I let the car sit a couple of days and it then ran fine. The check engine light even went out and I thought I was good to go.
Two days ago I was driving along and the engine simply cut out. It wouldn't restart and I had to have it towed.

With my friendly mechanic, the most we could come up with in the codes was the Camshaft Position Sensor (which has been order and will be put in.)
But the problem may be deeper.

The weird part is when you turn the key on you can hear the injectors working, the Tach will show 600+ RPM and the dash lights up.
When you crank the starter, the dash lights go out but the tach needle still shows RPM and the engine is not running.

The mechanic asked is there some kind of "ECM" ? Power Relay, Fuses etc....

Anyone have any similar issues or insights?

I'll put the CPS in as soon as it arrives but unfortunately it seems like something else may also be required.

Thanks for any assistance!

[lannvouivre]

Did you do the PCM/ECM recall issued by GM and Toyota? ECM stands for Electronic Control Unit, PCM is Powertrain Control Unit. These computers control the engine and transmission of the car.

Did you use Denso brand coils to replace the bad ones? If you go off-brand, the replacements may fail after a stupidly short amount of time.

Also, I think what you may actually be hearing when you turn the key to "on" is the fuel pump priming. The injectors are pretty quiet and should only be spraying while the engine is running anyway. If they stayed open, they could flood and hydrolock a cylinder. You can listen to the injectors firing by holding a screwdriver handle to your ear with the metal end against the injector.

Really, we need the codes to help out more. I mean, number and all. I think it's probably the sensor, as a bad cam sensor can cause stalling and no-start conditions. It could have just been going out earlier and finally fully failed recently. Just replace the sensor and see if it runs alright afterwards. As long as you don't hear any knocking or pinging or any other horrible noises, or have a flashing CEL, you probably won't hurt anything. Bad noises meaning mechanical damage, flashing CEL meaning fuel is being dumped into the catalytic converter and possibly ruining it.

[Dennis]

Thanks for your comments. My Richporter Tech Cam Position Sensor arrived today. I installed it and the car started just fine but I haven't driven it yet. It was at my mechanics very rural shop. Unfortunately he had driven it with no further problem to move it. I swapped the CPS before trying to start it pre- sensor replacement.

Thanks for the Denso comment. I put in a Richporter one. Also order a second off- brand one so I'll see how it goes.

I'll bike over and pick up the Vibe Saturday and drive it and see if it's fixed.

Again thanks for your insights. db