I fixed my car myself (sorta)

[Mr Chin Stubble]

My 19 yr old Ford w 163k miles would not start last week.

After taking 3 buses to work I figured it was time to get to work.

I borrowed my brothers car charger. Day 2 still would not start. (It cranks but won't turnover but eventually this kills the battery)
Day3 was a day of rest since the jumper boxes battery was now dead from jumping my car.

Day 4 starts right up. Hmmm.

Google tells me the crank sensor is usually bad on my car. I have no idea how people remove these--since I can barely reach mine-- but in any case I clean the pole with sandpaper and wd40 by reaching up there.

Starts but check engine still on. I assume it's from that, but no autozone tells me coil. I remember it was arcing on #6 on the coil pack a few weeks ago so take off the coil and notice a lot of blue crud. I clean and reset code.

Noises passenger shock bushing is bugging me so I remove and put new one on. Ah quiet.

Check engine light back on after 4 days however :/

[Syonyk]

A Bluetooth OBD-II code reader is cheap enough, assuming yours is OBD-II (it... should be, 1995 or 1996?).

Those are worth their weight in gold when troubleshooting cars.  Nothing nicer than the computer telling you what's wrong.

More fun than, say, troubleshooting a 75 year old tractor that won't start in the dead of winter and you want to use it to plow your driveway so you can get your truck out... ended up bashing my way through snow drifts to go get new plugs.

[Just Joe]

You've got it to run but do a little more investigation so it doesn't strand you somewhere inconvenient. You might be faced with an intermittent problem and thus the CEL light is on.

A few minor fixes and you likely have alot of miles left in the vehicle.

YouTube is full of helpful people doing the same repairs.

[Mr Chin Stubble]

Check engine off

I suspect a recurring o2 sensor problem it had

Autozone does code reads free

You tubers show different years /engine configurations where they can easily remove the crank sensor. I can't even see the screw let alone reach it.  Best  I could do was clean it from the outside and --I can't prove it --but I think it worked.