Well, I'm pretty sure my problem is the crank sensor. Since I can't buy a new sensor with my style connector here (no one has it and eclipses are super rare in junk yards here), I had to order a new style connector from a dealership. The guy that ordered it for me told me that it would come with instructions for wiring it to my harness. I went to pick it up today, different guy working there, no instructions. This guy tells me that he doesn't know why the guy would say there were instructions, because they almost never come with them. He directs me to the service department in hopes that someone there will be able to explain what to do. The first guy has no idea, but he gets on the intercom and calls the guy that he has putting a new timing belt on his eclipse for him, and that guy takes one look at the part and knows what it is. He tries to explain to me how to do it, and that it's not as hard to figure out as I think it is. He also told me to ditch the crimps it came with and solder the connection, which I figured would be better anyway, but to make sure to us the heat shrink it came with to keep moisture out. Makes sense.

But after he explains it, he asks what the problem is and what year the car is. He tells me that if my tack moves when I try to start the car, it's not the crank sensor and I've just wasted a lot of money. Mine doesn't, at least I haven't utterly wasted my time and money at this point. He goes on to explain that with a 95, when I change the sensor the ecu won't automatically detect the new sensor the way that a 96 and up will. Apparently it has to be hooked up to a scanner to manually tell the ecu to look for it. The issue was solved in latter models, but I'm boned. He went on to explain that the only reason he knows that is because he changed it on a 95 once and spent most of a work day trying to figure out why a perfectly good car wouldn't start.

At this point I'm really frustrated because I've spent all my money, and I still owe my uncle a hundred dollars from what he charged me to do the swap. He thinks the story sounds like bs, and I'm inclined to believe him. However, neither of us know much about these cars, let alone their electrical systems, and the guy was a service tech, not a salesmen. They had plenty of business, so he's not short on work. I just don't see much of a motivation for him to lie.

When I asked how much it would be for them to just run the scanner, they told me it would be the base diagnostic price, which is $90. Then I asked how much more for them to change the sensor and connector for me, so that I would know it was done right, they said it would probably be $140-150.

My question is-

Has anyone on here ran into this issue? I've tried searching for 95 ecu's, and all that I've come up with is that later models have a different connector, so I'm inclined to believe that it would be difficult to use a newer ecu to skip the dealership.

Would it have to be a specific kind of scanner? ie one only the dealership would have. Or does anyone know if I could rent it froma autozone/advanced.

If that's the case, has anyone ever swapped this crankshaft sensor connector?

Thanks for any help.

Just an interesting bit of irony, this place is a ford-mitsubishi dealership (seems wierd to me), so their lot is full of mustangs and eclipses (mostly their service room). I'm driving my mom's '01 mustang there to get parts and info to fix my eclipse.

never had to do that
my 95 ecu is currently running a swapped 2.4 engine with several new style sensors spliced into the old harness and it started on the first try

as for the connector swap just cut and solder wire for wire while keeping the locking clip on the same side
heat shrink is a must

Alain

Also a 95 and have replaced several sensors. I have never had a problem with the car not starting after. I have even replaced the TCM and it started right up, with his theory I should have had to tell it to look for every sensor on the car after doing that. 95 tcm is a obd2 same as the rest. If you reset the tcm it will automaticly revert back and thus have to read each sensor to reprogram.

never had issues with changing the crank sensor here either. I think the tech was blowing smoke up your ass trying to get some labor time out of you.