Who's brain can I pick for a minute???

2004 Dodge Stratus SXT 2 door 2.4L SOHC

1st - Car dies on the road. brought it home a did some tests. OBD II stated the Crankshaft Sensor was faulty. Did some tests with the Multimeter to check the sensor. In the end just did the job of replacing the Crankshaft Sensor.
2nd - Car still wont start and now the OBD II shows 'FAIL' on the readout.

Note - I'm using a standard Actron Pocket Meter CP9125. I called Actron and the guy says he has never seen/heard that meter 'ever' give that on the read out and that my scan tool is bad. B.S I say and plug it into another car and the scanner is working fine.

I am at a loss at the moment. Does anyone have any ideas to try???

 

Does it turn over? Only thing that comes to mind is a failed timing belt. You said you checked the crankshaft position sensor, which is located near the timing belt, so you would have seen if it was broken; maybe it jumped a few teeth?

 

By FAIL, I assume that to mean there is no communication (PCM offline)


There may have been a crank sensor code, but it's possible another sensor could be shorting the 5V circuit OR the PCM is just taking a dump.

 

1st reply - It still turns over but that is it. The timing belt was/is fine. I didn't have to touch it when i replaced the CKS.

2nd reply - I don't know why its coming back FAIL. That is one of my main problems of diagnosing the next issue. The scanner is getting power. After reading/scanning the car it just comes back FAIL on the screen. I cant find out out what the cause of that is. If it is the PROM, the ECC or a short.

Main - I guess to start some where. Why would a code scanner come back with FAIL when it worked before on the same car. Its not the scanner, tried it on another car.