# Engine Shutdown during Driving



## Kungpow (Aug 26, 2005)

Hi, long time since I've posted, but the Xtrail has been performing very well and haven't needed to get much advice. However two incidents with my Xtrail within the last 2 weeks have me concerned and I thought I ask for some advice (just got back from dealer and they couldn't find any error codes logged).

In a nutshell, first instance I'm in a parking stall applying brake and just put into reverse when the engine just cuts out. Dash lights all come on. I had to put it back in park and restart the engine - it took a few seconds to turn over but it started and no problems after that (for about 2 weeks) until last night. 

The second instance happened while I was slowing down towards a red, I was probably at about 20 km/hr at that point when all of a sudden the engine cut out again and dash lights on. Had to put it into park and restart engine and was moving again. This time the start was quick compared to the first incident. 

In both cases ambient temperature was cool, about 10 deg C, and nothing out of the ordinary. I brought it into the dealer and they hooked up their computer and said they couldn't find any error code. They suggested keeping it for a day or two to try and replicate the issue. However, I figured I haven't seen this issue for 2 weeks, I doubt they would be able to find much in a day or two - but they will have their computers hooked up to it and will see more diagnostic info than I will ever know. Anyways, might consider when I have a strecth where I don't need the vehicle, but that'll be rare.

I've seen some other post about engine shutdown and the root cause being some bad sensors, etc. However, the puzzling piece is that it's not giving an error code to suggest a bad sensor - I'm stumped. 

I'm worried as it's our primary vehicle and our baby in the back. I do not want to have a sudden stall in the middle of traffic with her back there.

Hoping that this post rings a bell with someone or maybe some suggestions from others. Something I can at least think about while driving or when I'm talking to the dealership. Thanks in advance!


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## otomodo (May 23, 2008)

Hi,i had the same problem and had no codes showing up. 
The dealer changed the crank sensor and the car is fine since.


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## MANY787 (Jan 28, 2011)

CHECK THE FUEL FILTER!


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## OttawaX (Feb 2, 2005)

I had the crank sensor go also but the check engine light came on.


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## Kungpow (Aug 26, 2005)

> Hi,i had the same problem and had no codes showing up.
> The dealer changed the crank sensor and the car is fine since.


Thanks, Otomodo. I also came across some other posts in other forums (not Xtrail) which also mentioned the crank sensor. 

BTW. What was the ballpark price for your fix?


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## Kungpow (Aug 26, 2005)

*An update*

I dropped the Xtrail off at the dealership to give them a few days to road test and check the vehicle out. As I expected for such an intermittent problem they were unable to find the reason. I brought up the crank sensor and the service rep was certain it was not the cause. Since the end of the inspection, the stalling happened 3 or 4 more times with the last 2 times being closer spaced (within 2 days). Then yesterday felt a very slow shift from 1st to 2nd and a slight jerk of the vehicle then finally a service engine light came on. Good! Finally! I was really wondering whether I wanted to use this as my primary vehicle with our baby in back if it was going to be prone to stalls at unknown time and places I traffic.

I immediately brought it into the service dept and (another service rep) got it in and basically said the code were from 2 other sensors and that they both pointed to the crank sensor being the problem. Anyways they fixed the crank sensor and I was on my way. My real nagging issue is that why errors with the crank sensor doesn't dump an error code -especially if the consequence are random stalling!


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## jdg (Aug 27, 2009)

Computers are good, but they ain't that good. In fact, they're only as good as their programs.
Suppose you had a crank sensor that was working fine, but an injector was shot somewhere, or a plug wire was bad and grounding out.
As far as the ECU is concerned, well, it could be almost anything. It's still getting intermittent signals from the crank sensor, but it doesn't know if the crank sensor's output is at fault, or if a plug isn't firing because of whatever.
Sure, a broken wire or a shorted wire is an easy thing for a logic circuit to determine. 
And yes, going from an ECU calculated 3,000 rpm to 20 rpm in the space of a few milliseconds and then back to 3,000 rpm is totally unrealistic. But the ECU may or may not know that...again, depending on the program.
Crank sensors (well, ECU's anyways) these days are able to detect individual cylinder misfires by reading a high resolution crank sensor and calculating crankshaft acceleration and deceleration in between individual cylinders firing based on those crank position sensor pulses. A crappy crank sensor might show up as a "multiple random cylinder misfire", whereas an actual individual cylinder misfire will generally show up as exactly that...a particular cylinder misfire code.
I guess I gotta go back to the original statement...Computers are good, but they ain't that good!
Well, that and a good mechanic that's able to think outside the box sometimes helps too. There's too many mechanics out there that really mean well and try their best, but they just don't have the computer/electronics skills to think thru some of these things.


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