So the service engine soon light on my wifes new to us 96 sidekick is on. I ran the codes on it and the one that continuosly comes back after erasing the codes is the Crankshaft Position Sensor Circuit A malfunction. I checked all the wiring and it all appears to be fine. Havent ran any resistance tests on anything. My question is, has anyone else dealt with this issue and is it pretty safe to say that the sensor needs replaced? The 'kick runs great. Drove it all the way home from where we bought it (almost 300 miles) with no issues. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Wow, nobody huh?

First off check that there hasn't been a gasket fitted between the oil pan and the block, then check that all the teeth are present on the crankshaft pulley.
Sometimes you need to wait more than a few hours for a reply.

Thanks for the info. Ill check it out. And I waited for 16 hours according to my post. And seeing that it had been viewed over 30 times I wondered why there were no replies. Thanks again.

Sometimes people don't know.The sensor is pretty easy to pull, it is on the front of the oil pan and only held on with a single bolt.  It should be free of oil, if there is some then either your oil pan isn't sealing or the front main gasket needs to be replaced.

Do you know when the last service was done to replace the timing belt?

Yah there is definently oil on the sensor housing. I pulled the sensor connection apart and no oil residue was present inside. I am pretty sure that the timing belt was replaced within the last 5,000 miles. I need to look back on the recipts and check for sure. I am going to take the front timing cover off this weekend and check the teeth on the crank sensor wheel to make sure none are damaged.

Okay so I finally got some time to pull everything apart. The sensor itself looks fine and it tests good as far as resistance. When I pulled the timing cover off I noticed that a couple of the teeth on the timing belt pulley that is driven by the crank are chipped severly. Would this be causing the issue with the CPS giving a bad reading? If so I will order up a new one ASAP!!

Okay so I finally got some time to pull everything apart. The sensor itself looks fine and it tests good as far as resistance. When I pulled the timing cover off I noticed that a couple of the teeth on the timing belt pulley that is driven by the crank are chipped severly. Would this be causing the issue with the CPS giving a bad reading? If so I will order up a new one ASAP!!

That will cause lots of problems, curiously thats the second occurence of that that I've heard of in the last couple of weeks.

Talked to the guys over at trail tough. Definently the problem. Got all my new parts ordered up. Should have it fixed next week.

Drove it all the way home from where we bought it (almost 300 miles) with no issues. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Usually it runs synchronous injection, where the fuel is injected at the optimum time for each cylinder in turn. If the Crankshaft Sensor fails then it will revert to batch fire where it fires two injectors simultaneously with the timing based on the camshaft Position Sensor. The difference isn't great, maybe a little off the fuel economy and worse emissions at low rpm.
Have you got any idea what caused the failure?