Movement of the crank out of stock specifications. All cranks have L to R movement, to some extent, but an excessive lateral crank movement has bad reprocussions, such as hitting/grinding/destroying the crank sensor. A "walking" crank necessitates an engine rebuild.
Any car can crankwalk, but Mitsubishi Eclipses, Plymouth Lasers, and Eagle Talons with a 7-bolt motor are notorious for this problem. No recall was ever released as the problem was
said to be isolated to a bad
batch of cranks, which represented a fraction of the produced cars. Various theories of why crankwalk occurs and what years are most suseptible exist, but none are proven. General consenus is
poor oil
flow is one cause, and later model years seem to suffer less.
Contrary to
popular opinion, any car can crankwalk; Manual, auto, import, domestic, turbo, manual, racecar, beater. All have walked, and all have a chance of walking.
