Sooooooo I finally stumbled acroos the one 3800 out of a million that developed a rod knock at only 104k. Engine is being swapped out right now with a brand new one. the car is a 2002 sle. First of all let me say, yes it was a rod knock, i dropped the oil pan and looked at it myself, second while trying to limp it to my mechanic, the rod definitaly snapped..... boy was that loud.

Anyway, my question is, 4 months ago i ran into a problem with my car shutting off while driving, i wouldnt lose electric power, but the car would just be going down the highway and shut off. sometimes it would restart quickly other times it would take 10 - 15 minutes to fire back up just to shut off in 2 miles. i would do this 5 to 8 times and then be fine for a few days. I had several mechanics try and diagnose it but nothing seemed to fix it, so i finally brought it to the dealer and they said the wires going from the crank and cam sensors shorted out my PCM. I am wondering if all the times the car would turn off randomly and restart, or those sensors being shorted out, would have anything to do with a rod knock.

It shouldn't.

Bearing failure is typically oil related. Running low on oil, getting water in the crankcase, infrequent oil changes and simple bad luck are the types of things that usually cause bearing failure.

Just my 2 cents but if they cam and crank sensor told the PCM to fire. And it did at wrong time and too many times could that not weaken a rod and damage a bearing? 70 MPH and 2000 RPM'* and bam! All of a sudden theres spark at the wrong time. That would put alot of stress on the rod and bearing.

I think you would notice the performance issues if that were to happen, plus there are other systems that would detect errors and throw codes. Not an expert opinion, just an opinion.