too many heat/cool cycles for ANYTHING will eventually fatigue the material.
In this case, I believe the thinger on the crank whose name I can't think of is magnetic, as is the central portion of the CKP. When the crank rotates, every so often the 2 magnets interact. The change in magnetic field strength induces a current in wire coiled around the CKP magnet (because that's just how physics works.) So you get a pulse each time the two magnets interact.

THe only real failure modes are open circuit (coiled wire becomes non-continuous) leading to an infinite resistance measurement across the coil, or shorted (insulation on the wire in two adjacent physically adjacent turns of the coil breaks down and two bare coil wire sections meet, leading to a partial short of the coil. Depending on where this happens in the windings (not everything is necessarily wound in a simple layered fashion), it will affect the total effective resistance of the coil, which will affect signal V level sent to the PCM. Too low and PCM sees it as invalid.

I think the reason they work cold then fail while hot in the early stages of failure, then work again is that the break in the coil first occurs when hot, and is such that the wires are in such close proximity to each other that when the CKP cools down, thermal contraction occurs and results in the two ends of the break making good electrical contact again as if nothing were wrong. Heat it up and they separate again. Kinda difficult to get out on the side of the highway and get a DVM across the CKP, so it's easier to diag by symptoms. I guess you could jam some wires into the connector for extension wires for the DVM and watch the coil resistance go to Inf (open circuit) -- but where's the fun in that?

/end of pointless explanation no one asked for but I felt like sharing because I just did and parts may be wrong but I think I'm pretty close.
It's amazing how many people were never taught discrete electrical component behavior and magnetic field phenomena in school. People used to laugh at my grad school advisor for teaching the discrete stuff to the students in the nineties. Who's laughing now? RIP JS

 

Anywhere else that thing is referred to as a reluctor to the best of my knowledge.

 

THANK YOU!!!!

I refused to look it up.

 

 

If you mean in TN, that's a question for Rube.

I live in PA

 

Shell, if you're in Nashville, go to the Pull-A-Part yard on Centennial Blvd. Tons of cars there. BUT, it's a crap shoot finding what you want. You just have to go look. You can pull up their website and see if they have the model vehicle you're looking for. If so, they'll give you a row # where it's located. You can also look up the price of the item and there's an interchange feature that will let you know what other vehicles may have the same part that will fit yours. If you don't want to pull it yourself, then you'll need to go to a parts store, because they WON'T pull it for you. You could try Abernathy's on Lebanon Pike. They won't let you into the yard and WILL pull what you want. I used to live in New Johnsonville, 85 miles west of Nashville, and shopped the Pull A Part yard a LOT. I THINK I even got derf a couple of items, but don't remember for sure. Damned brain surgeries! Living in FL now but hoping to get back to TN within the next couple of years. Florida SUCKS.

 

Just for the heck of it, I pulled up an 04 Vue on the Pull A Part site. They show to have a 4 cylinder 04 with a manual transmission on row 133. They have two 04 V-6 models on rows 113 and 124. Both are automatics.

 

 

Use this thread as a troubleshooting guide OR please post a new thread for your issue. Thanks

 

Hey derf and blaisa I love the information. it was very helpful. However I have a Saturn of my own and
​​it doesn't matter how long I drive the car,
when I shut it off it doesn't wanna start back SOMETIMES.
This sporadically happens though and even with that being said sometimes it'll take anywhere from ten minutes to cut to 8 plus hours or untill it cools off do you have any idea what it could be