Some silly but necessary questions.


-What would make a crank sensor overheat?


-Would low oil make a crank sensor overheat?


-Would bad electrical make a crank sensor overheat?


-How many crank sensors does a R53 have? (the shop I went to said it is the one on the back but I just replaced one on the front, so either there are 2 or the guy doesn't know where it is. And if there is only 1 my new one is faulty)

 

Overheat? Doesn't make any sense to me. Nor how one would determine it had overheated. Only one I know of is in the front.

 

The only crank trigger is in the front side of the motor. No idea how it could overheat. Unless maybe you ran it completely out of oil. Like completely, oil light on, out of oil.

I've been down 2qt and no issues. Don't recommend it though.

 

Ya, they guy didn't know where it was at. Only one on the front of the engine. A month ago I bought one off ebay, don't buy parts cheap parts off ebay for your Mini, lesson learned. I used to buy parts for my Dakota all the time from ebay. Mini coopers must be more picky.


I keep getting reminded that I am as good at trouble shooting as a trained mechanic. They couldn't find the coolant leak either. I'm wondering if it is the radiator and the coolant is just burning off. Very frustrating.

 

Yeah, don't go cheap on parts. Causes more headache than you save. Seems like the mini really doesn't like sensors other than the correct OEM ones.

 

The majority of the time any electrical component overheats is because of either a high duty cycle or high resistance in the circuit.

Seeing as though you can't adjust the duty cycle of the sensor, my guess would be that there is a pinched wire.

Have you had the transmission out recently? I've seen issues with people pinching the wiring harness between the trans and engine when doing a clutch or other job requiring the trans to be removed.

I can't see low oil causing that sensor to overheat, as it is just a hall effect sensor that is looking for the signal from the tone ring.

 

I just bought the car in June so it's hard to say what was done before I had it. The car was for sure abused before I got it.


The only weird thing that has happened was a rat in my engine bay a few days before the first one went bad. If this next one goes out I may be looking for a chewed on wire. That's going to be fun.


The new sensor feel like better quality and it even has a serial number on it. Seriously, no more parts from ebay.