Hard Starting and Cam Sensor Codes

2000 Buick Lesabre 3.8L service engine soon. New cam sensor wiring checked reset codes. Light came back on and was told may be crank sensor or the pcm. I am at a loss. The car is harder to start and idles rough no stalling and hesitates some.

Question = what should be checked first service engine light cam sensor was bad replaced with ac Delco light came back on with in 10 miles took it back was told crank sensor may be bad or may have a bad pcm. He wasn't sure and didn't want to spend my money. The car is harder to start at times. It was dead once on third attempt to start it started right up rough idle. Not as much pep. Also the door locks will lock and unlock at times for no reason while in park idling. Where would be a good place to start?

Question:
1992 Buick LeSabre Custom 3800 V6. My Buick chugs and will even die on her. I just put new plugs in and that didn't help any. So i poured a bottle of injector cleaner in the tank and drove the car for about 5 miles and that seemed to help some. What would you suggest I try to do next? What else should I be looking at? Thanks for your help.

Answer:
See pictures below. What you are describing could be several things, but a common problem is that the fuel pressure regulator is leaking fuel into the vacuum hose, causing a rich condition. Another symptom is that it cranks long until it starts, then runs rough for a few seconds, then clears up, may die at stops. I would also check fuel pressure, and check to see if it is misfiring.

Answer:
There are a couple things you can check out. First off, the 3.8 liter engines are known for bad fuel pressure regulators.(See pic below) The diaphragm inside it breaks and fuel gets sucked into the intake through the vacuum line. This creates a hard starting condition due to too much fuel being introduced in the intake. This is an easy check. Get the car hot, preferably after driving a while. Remove the plastic engine cover and you can see the fuel pressure regulator on the fuel rail. Remove the vacuum line that goes to it and let it sit a few minutes. If you see gas start to leak out the hole of the regulator, you know it is bad. Even if you can just smell gas, I would recommend replacing it.

Another thing to check out, and that is known to cause problems like the one your having, would be the Mass Airflow Sensor. You can tap on it while the car is running and see if it stumbles or dies, or better yet, if you can get the car to act up, unplug the sensor and see if anything changes

I wouldn't be too sure about the crank sensor, when they are faulty it will usually cause a stalling condition when hot, and you don't seem to have that issue. If all else fails, I would check fuel pressure and possibly scan for any trouble codes and go from there.

Question:
Buick LaSabre 1997. This Buick suddenly quit running a few months ago. eventually I discovered that by pushing inward on the wire just to the left of the ICM attachment bolt "viewed as you stand in front of the car facing the engine". The car would run just fine for an indeterminant period of time and then quit again. This particular wire I just mentioned is one of 14 wires attached to ICM connector I have tried replacing the ICM module and also replaced about 6 inches of that one wire where it feeds into the connector. My car still does the same thing. I have also put a meter on the crank shaft 3x and 18x signal wires and they seem to carry an interrupted signal just like they should, when I crank the motor by hand. Lately the car won't run any length of time at all. Alas what to do?

Answer:
Several ires for the ignition control mmodule go down to the crank sensor. There is a common spot that they rub. About 10 iches from the sensor going up to the ICM. Concentrate on that area. Near the back of the A/c compressor.