aggravation

I noticed that my Hall Sensor lead, where it emerges from the main harness above the crank pulley area has very brittle insulation and it is cracked and bare in places to the point that the shielding wire is exposed for about an inch in two places.

What symptoms would an exposed wire have and/or a break in the wire or maybe a weakness where it sends signal intermittently. I don't know it to be broken inside but just wondering what to look out for..

Also does the SharkTuner software show the Hall Sensor...I should know by now but I can't remember and can't fire up my laptop right now to see....

AO

Craig... I think you mean the front knock sensor. The Hall sensor is located behind the passenger cam gear right next to Cyl #1. The forward knock sensor emerges out the front of the valley above the crank pulley.

I do not believe the Shark Tuner has any diagnostic functionality to determine if the knock sensors or Hall sensor is working or not.

As for symptoms, if either knock sensor or the hall sensor is not working, the EZK will default to a "protected mode" whereby all ignition timing will be retarded 6º (IIRC - might be 9º). Needless to say, you would be unable to properly tune ignition timing on a car with a sensor fault and the car would feel down on power.

andy-gts

Yes the sharktuner will reflect a fault with the hall or knock sensor, no diagnosic tool will tell you what is wrong(whether connection or device) with the sensor, only that it needs checked and probably replaced or trace down a connection problem.

David L. Lutz

I would not think if only the shield is exposed, it would cause a problem. However, you probably need to inspect it closely and make sure none of the leads inside the shield are bare or cracked.

I had to replace my Hall Sensor plug and part of the wire back behind the cam gear for a similar reason. I guess its just the heat and time break down those wires/connectors.

Note: If you have not checked the connector to he hall it may be a good idea to!

aggravation

Yea it's definitely the Hall Sensor, maybe mine is routed a little differently but it comes off the main harness near the timing belt tensioner alarm wire and on mine runs across the front of the timing belt cover passenger side and up behind the passenger rotor cover to where the sensor connector is mounted on the back of the backing plate.

I'm pretty sure there is no break in the core conductor and the bare shielding wire looks to be undisturbed not frayed or broken, it's just that the insulation has become brittle and flaked off where I disturbed it while re-installing the supercharger and trying to get my timing belt tensioner alarm wire to sit more securely. (I have Porkens tensioner installed and sometimes my alarm light comes on I think because I painted my belt covers and don't have a good ground connection for the widget that bypasses the alarm light wire.) The connector for the Hall Sensor is good, I had removed it during my cam cover job and it's in good shape.

On the Hall Sensor would it's retarding the timing show up in the SharkTuner logs the way the Knock Sensors do? So far I get very little knock events and all the sensors test green in the SharkTuner. I'm guessing that I could repair the insulation with some of that self sealing silicon tape I bought from 928 Motorsports... that stuff really works well!

John Speake

It should be a problem, as lomg as the exposed shield is not coming into contact with some other metal . Just put some tape around the wound.

The SharkTuner will identify if either knock sensor or the Hall sensor are faulty, and will display the amount of retard that is applied in that instance - 6deg as Andrew said.

aggravation

Thanks John!
I was hoping that was the case, that the Hall Sensor would have showed up in the logs but I just couldn't remember if I'd seen a field for them last time I logged. When I saw the bared wire I thought "Aha! that's why I don't see much knock because the Hall Sensor is pulling back the timing from this wire"...

Simple greed on my part hoping to find more power that could be unleashed by merely fixing a wire. At least I can fix it before it does become a problem.

John Speake

Hi Craig
The EZK SYstem montitor screen will show a knock or Hall sensor fault - a red "LED" for each one.

The data logs will show the number of knocks recorded on each individual cylinder, and the amount of igntion retard being applied. (If you select the appropriate variables)