Dear vmili,

Good a.m. and may this find you. At 13 years of age and 185K miles, the crank sensor doesn't owe you even a penny.

Exposure to heat - and movement - causes the plastic wiring harness insulation to become brittle and, eventually, to fail. When the wires contact each other, the signal is lost, which causes the fuel pump to shut-down.

This is a safety feature: if the engine stops turning as a result of an collision, the stopping of the crank sensor signal turns-off the fuel pump, and so prevents fuel from being pumped into an engine bay, that might be torn apart. This limits fire risk.

Even if the fuel pump relay is found to be the actual cause of your intermittent stalls, the crank sensor needs to be replaced. At some point, when it fails, the car will stop. Dead.

You can do this replacement(see FAQs, under FEATURES, above). The original sensor likely has a yellow band (painted) around the harness. The replacement sensor should have a white band.

Hope this helps.

Yours faithfully,

spook