Ok guys I have a problem thats got me stumped. I have a 96 camaro lt1. The problem is my car will run till it warms up them will just die and throw a code p1371. I have searched the other threads for answers. Everyone always points to the opti. The only problem is I have been chasing this problem for a couple of years. My car has had two optis installed in two years. The car only gets a couple of hundred miles a year. THe opti I removed looked brand new. I have a new opti harness. All connections are greased. We have checked the wiring all the way to the computer. We put an o-scope one the wires at the computer and they have the correct signals. High and Low pulses. The car will start right back up and run again . I have installed a new icm a few years ago. I am out of things to check. The car runs smooth when it runs. The other day it died on the highway. It bucked and missed and wouldn't restart for about 10 minutes. After it started it ran fine all the way back to the shop. When I got there it started ran until I tried to leave then it stopped. I cleared the code and it started right up. The only think I haven't changed it the crank sensor and the computer itself. Please help.

 

The crank position sensor has nothing to do with the whether the engine runs or not. It was only added in 1996 to meet the OBD-2 requirement for misfire detection.

The only thing that can set DTC 1371 is loss of low resolution pulse. You describe the classic symptoms of an intermittent loss of signal. And, sounds like it may be heat soak of the optical module. What brand were/are the Optis?

 

According to my OBDII book, the code indicates, while starting or running, the PCM received high resolution pulses, but did not receive any low resolution pulses. I think you know what that means. What brand of opti have you been buying?

 

I don't know what brand was on the car when I bought it. I bought it with 20k miles. I can only assume it was ac delco. Car now only has 71k miles.The brand I bought in 2011 was chandler motor sports premium. I had it on there for a couple of thousand miles. The last version was accel. We have the car hooked to an o-scope right now. Both signals never seem to drop out when it died. It just turned off. It took three shutdowns before it set a code. In the last hour it has been running fine. We can't make it die. I would normally just change the opti again but this is getting annoying. The low res signal never drops out of fluctuates. I have has 3 lt1 cars so as far as optis I have purchased just about all brands at one time or another. This car is the only one that has had to change more than once. Can you just change the optical sensor without pulling the whole unit off?

 

AC Delco or Delphi are generally considered the best replacement optis. Yes, they cost more than a Chandler or Accel. Check Rock Auto.

 

Ok so I took my car all apart and pulled the accel opti off. I went ahead and got a Delphi opti. So before installing the new opti we took it apart to see what sensor comes with the Delphi. It's a Mitsubishi I wasn't sure since I was told that the ac delco and the Delphi were not the same. Anyway installed it and problem solved hopefully. Car started right up. Any way we then took the accel apart. What a piece of crap. The rotor screws were loose. The seal wasn't pressed in place correctly. And it had oil on the metal wheel. The oil must have come through the middle bearing area since there was no evidence of oil around the outer edge. It only had a couple of hundred miles on it.

 

Did you loc-tite the rotor screws on the new Delphi unit?

 

They seemed to have some kind of loc-tite already on them. They were tight. However yes we cleaned them and put some red loc-tite on them. I have change many of these opti's in the past, however I learned a lot this time around about them. Why they break etc. I will never again buy anything but ac or dephi (knock on wood). This make the third I have installed on this car in the last two years.