CL600 Puzzle for the Day
 

Background: 2001 CL600. 100k miles. Absolute beauty. Black. Got the car 6 months ago. Just today got it functional (enough) to go for a test ride.

What was the trouble?: When purchased, car was difficult to start. Otherwise great handling and acceleration. Very responsive. Codes (P0340 and P0341) indicated Camshaft Sensors needed replacing. Did that. Car started once. Some initial rough idling, then great. New code then showed up P0335 (Crank Position Sensor). Changed-out the Crank Position Sensor. The car was now absolutely dead. No clicks, no cranks, nothing. Got smart and replaced the Starter, and it fired right up! Which leads us to today's test ride.

Test Ride:
Pre-Ride: Dash showed ABS light, BAS and ESP service messages. Also throwing codes P0335 and P0340.
Mile 1: Absolute Disaster! Drove half way around the block. Started up a small hill, and the car died. 6x had to restart and try again until it had just enough power, if you went slower than a human walking, to crawl back to my house.
Mile 2: Slight Improvement. Restarted the car and found it would now go about 15 mph before it began staggering and trying to stall. The stalling was brought on by any attempt to accelerate (like pulling away from a STOP sign).
Miles 3-15: Road Capable: Car will now do 60, and climb hills, but is a weakling compared to what it should be. Still, any sudden acceleration and it jerks about and hesitates. (Great news was the ABS light, and the BAS and ESP messages went away!)
Miles 15-25: Out on the open road. It will do 80 mph, but takes way too long to get there. Is acting like its a four cylinder (not a V12). Still struggles with any amount of sudden acceleration.
Mile 26: Pulling back into the neighborhood. Car tries to stall at the STOP sign before my house. Car does stall as I pull into my driveway. Car starts right back up and I pull the rest of the way into my garage.

What I've Got To Go With: Only two codes are showing, P0335 and P0340. Which means ... I'M RIGHT BACK WHERE I STARTED! So my question(s) to anyone that has read this far ... what gives a false-positive P0335 and P0340? Apparently all the CL600 really needed was a Starter. Replacing the Camshaft and Crank Position Sensors had no effect and the codes. Along with those codes, I now have the hesitation and stalling issues (which it did not have when I drove it home after purchase). So ... do I just need to reset the computer? Things seemed to get better every time I drove it (until it stalled coming into my driveway).

Tell me what you think. Thanks in advance.

And now this ... Just went out to try an ECU reset (turning key to "Run" position, pressing accelerator to the floor for 15 seconds, turning key off, then releasing accelerator, then wait 2 minutes).

The result ... it won't start at all. That nice, new starter whirs and whirs, but no ignition.

Still have the P0335 and P0340.

Follow Up!
My CL600 now starts up, everytime, stays running, and goes down the road. Although it is still in limp mode (P0340). Here's what I did to get rid of the Crankshaft Position Sensor fault:
I replaced the Crankshaft Position Sensor harness. You have to buy a harness. Then buy the premanufactured wires/contact (For whatever reason, I couldn't find anyone in the US that sold them fully assembled). Then wire it up. Then cut and splice into your existing wiring for the CPS harness. I also pulled and replaced all relays. Whichever, it did the trick. Car now runs, but still suffers from "Limp-Mode" presumably due to the Camshaft code (P0340). More on that in my next post.