Hi, all!

Some strange things have been happening lately. I am not sure where to start! 1995 850 Wagon with 160K miles.

A couple weeks ago, Igassed my car upwhile the engine was running. When I got back into the car, the car was off. Then it wouldn't start no matter what I did. I took the negative connector off the battery and touched it to the positive connector to discharge stuff and it started. I thought it was static electricity or something that triggered the whole thing, who knows. I forgot about it. A fluke perhaps, but I know that wasn't the case

In an unrelated incident, I had my front O2 sensor replaced recently because apparently my old one was very bad (looking). I think the car exhaust smells better now, and I'm positive I'm getting better gas mileage. A few days later and after a 200 mile car trip (so it's been running fine), I left my car running to warm up the interior for like 25 minutes (we were trying to leave a christmas party and it was taking a while). It was really, really cold outside. I was in the middle of nowhere with a baby in the back seat. We got a few miles away when the check engine light came on and the car felt like a governor was turned on - I couldn't accelerate very well and my speed dropped significantly very quickly. I figure it went into limp mode. It went out of limp mode within 20 seconds and has been fine, though I haven't driven it but a couple times since. I have a manual transmisson, if that matters.

I figured I'd check the engine codes. I got
3-1-4

which is the camshaft position sensor. I think this is related to the car not starting at the gas station. Could this also be related to the brief limp mode incident? Anyone have luck removing and cleaning it rather than replacing it?

Does anyone think the fact that only one O2 sensor was replaced could lead to the limp mode incident? There were no engine codes related to O2 sensors.

My MAF sensor is pretty old, I'll bet, if that is a possibility for thebrief limp modeincident. I cleaned it once with brake cleaner which was probably not a great thing to do. The idle is not silky smooth. Is the MAF sensor cleaner in a can product a good way to clean MAF sensors? I seriously don't have 200 bucks to spend on the sensor.


-edited for clarity-

 

Change the Cam sensor first.

 

Follow Tech's advice. Other things that are failing lately, due to the age of the car are:

- Fuel pump
- Fuel pump relay
- MAF sensor

I myself have never used MAF sensor cleaner. I would just wipe it clean with dry cloth or compressed air, although this depends on what type of MAF sensor is installed (flapper-valve type, hot-wire type, Karman vortex type, etc...).

I wouldn'tshort-circuit the battery; it could fry out many things, including the ECUs.


JPN

 

Thanks, gents.

Many miles later and the camshaft pos. sensor swap went well. I won't know if it fixed anything for a while, as the problems were intermittent.

200 bucks!