'96 850 T5 (B5234T, M56H): Crank, no start

[scot850]

Nice to be able to give back for all your help to others!

Neil.

[abscate]

Other than wiring I think these sensors go bad a lot less frequently than we think. There are basically passive Hall effect devices with no moving parts.

The codes that point to them are often spurious

In 1999 we got much better wiring connectors on all this stuff than -1998

[Cookeh]

I think you're largely right in that failures are quite rare, or more likely due to wiring issues. As you alluded to, you can't get much simpler than a hall effect sensor.

All these parts are original on my car, which just ticked over 200k miles and will be 26 in a week. I expect they're getting close-ish towards the end of their lifespan, and getting parts has become noticeably more challenging in the three years I've had the car. Harvesting a spare of each where possible may save some hardships later down the line.