Have a 96 se and the car will sometimes start right off and run no problems and sometimes it will crank and crank and not start, then start stall 2 seconds later and then when you start it again the engine will run unbeliveably bad for a few seconds almost die then run like a champ. Dosen't matter really warm or cold. I have replaced the plugs, wires, coils, and ignition control module, and also the o2 sensors. I'm thinking maybe a crank sensor? But the light isnt on for it and it is really pissing me off. The car will also sometimes stall at a stop light start back up eventually and run fine and go 100 down the highway.... Just don't get it. fuel filter is new too. Any advice or help is apriciated thanks.

Ben

Check your fuel pressure.

I did its good.

Check over the EGR, check the tube for cracks. Spray a mist of water over the plug wires, do this with the lights off. Watch for blue flashes. This would be a short in the ignition system.

I checked wires although they are new and they are fine not leaking also egr would ne good except it dosent keep running poorly and an egr valve stuck or leaking would make it run really poorly and keep running that way. A timing light shows no spark or irratic spark then it runs fine and sparks smoothly

That sounds like a ignition problem then, so that narrows down where we need to look. You have the ignition harness, inspect that. The crank sensor, the cam sensor, and the ICM. Inspect all the plugs.

is there any way to check the crank sensor and cam sensor on the car? the more it does it and the more I think about it it seems like it would be timing related, which both of these control on these cars. I was wondering if there were anyway to do that since the harmonic balancer has to come off for the crank sensor... That is a sucky job.

There is. You need to connect a ohm meter and rotate the engine. The ohms will go up and down. But I don't recall which wires need to be checked.