Is this correct? I have a bad crank sensor and need to replace it but I'm guessing they are the same thing. If not, where is the crank sensor located?

 

yes but try cleaning it first.

 

And check the wiring harness.....the sensor doesn't fail that often

 

rotary engines don't have a crankshaft, that's why it's called an Eccentric Shaft Sensor (ESS)

 

I swapped the ESS sensor, still giving me trouble. I checked the wiring harness but it goes up into a bundle pretty quickly that I couldn't get into. My car will pop start fine if I pop the clutch out down a hill, but it just spins the starter with no crank after I let it sit for awhile. Any suggestions?

I checked the harness with a multimeter and it was getting no voltage when i tried start the car.

 

You won't get any voltage

If the car runs when you bump start it the issue isn't the ESS sensor or circuit. You need to troubleshoot elsewhere

 

On my 2005 rx8 , I had an engine code come up for the crankshaft sensor being bad, so instead of cleaning it I just bought a new one and replaced it. After that car worked great just recently the code came up again so I cleaned the sensor and then the car is fine . once driving around for a while the code will come up again, and when the clutch is held in the car doesn't idle it goes to 0 then car shuts off, any ideas? thanks

 

You need to reset the profile of the sensor. Follow these instructions
https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tro...memory-169443/