CPS P0340 Little help guys.

[ATF]

Evening all. Went with my roommate to the local burrito place, no issues. Turn my car on after eating (didn't notice if the CEL was on yet). Banged a U-Turn, maybe a little heavy on the gas (and steering wheel fully cranked) and then I noticed the CEL. Pulled over, shut the car off. Turn the car back on and still had the CEL. Babied her back to our place. Just pulled the code.

I'm getting a P0340 which is for the cam shaft position sensor circuit. http://www.obd-codes.com/p0340 gave me a few ideas, but it also has me concerned.

I reset the code, shut the car off, turn it on. (The car was at operating temperature) Revved it incrementally to 5500 RPM's. No CEL. It has me worried though, earlier, coming home from work I noticed at a red light that the idle was a little bouncy and the car was already warm. I'm going to take her for a spin tomorrow to see if the CEL will come back on after a little bit of driving.

I saw a previous post from Dusten saying that the CPS is a rather cheap replacement, what am I looking at in terms of tools/facilities? I'd like to replace the CPS just to be on the safe side.

Has anyone else ever had CPS 'hiccups'? Appreciate it guys, happy easter to all.

[JNCoulombe]

I replaced mine a couple of years ago. The sensor itself is at the front of the head and easily accessable, however, what I recall is that you have to pull upper portion of the intake manifold to get to the connectors for it. It isn't hard to do and only requires simple hand tools, but in additon to the cam sensor there's an intake gasket that you should probably replace. There is a brief protocol in the Haynes manual, and I can check my Bensens later. Working carefully it took me only an hour or so.

[ATF]

Originally Posted by JNCoulombe

I replaced mine a couple of years ago. The sensor itself is at the front of the head and easily accessable, however, what I recall is that you have to pull upper portion of the intake manifold to get to the connectors for it. It isn't hard to do and only requires simple hand tools, but in additon to the cam sensor there's an intake gasket that you should probably replace. There is a brief protocol in the Haynes manual, and I can check my Bensens later. Working carefully it took me only an hour or so.

Brief trip around the city, car wash, errands, little bit of spirited highway driving. No CEL or any hesitation while driving. I popped the hood to take a look at the sensor, indeed it is easily accessible. Indeed my hands and eyes aren't good enough to find the end of the sensor wire so the intake manifold will have to be removed .

Something I don't want to do in a windy, sandy, parking lot at school.. ugh.. However the good news is that I can order those parts rather than buying them at the dealership and then rent a bay @ Hanscom AFB and do it myself.

Thanks guys, also Thank you JNCoulombe, I'll order a new intake gasket to replace the old one. Anyone else have any recommendations while I have my head underneath the hood? Or any pitfalls I may run into? (special tools for instance).

[ATF]

CEL came back on. ugh. I'm pulling the code tomorrow morning. Probably the same code. Anyone have pics of the intake manifold removed?

[DueceMcCracken]

Are there any other symptoms beside the bouncy idle and the CEL?
I believe I am dealing with the saem problem, I'm going to check my codes tonight and find out for sure.

Goodl Luck!!

[ATF]

So I'm a little nervous pulling the intake manifold off, and what I absolutely have to remove from the intake manifold to access the plug to the CPS. I'm going to check the Bentley Manual to see what they show for removing the intake manifold, but if anyone else has suggestions, pictures or anything to help me out, I highly appreciate it. Thanks -Nick

From what I gathered on the Bentley manual, I only need to remove the upper intake manifold, the lower intake manifold can stay there? Is this correct?

[StealthBimmer]

Here is a thread about it. http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthrea...&highlight=cps

[JNCoulombe]

Correct, only the upper manifold needs to come off. It isn't difficult. Sorry, don't have any pictures to post for you. The parts diagrams people often post here might be a help, but with a Bentley manual you should be okay.

[ATF]

Just throwing it out there, sensor came in today, grabbing gaskets tomorrow. Going to tough it out til the weekend to do it.

I'm hoping a problem that I also noticed today will go away after replacing my sensor..

The engine temp goes from the middle, to 1/4 cold when driving fast.. When doing some city driving it sits right in the middle as it should. Anyways, I'll keep you all posted, thank you for the help so far.

[JNCoulombe]

Running cold like that may mean that your thermostat is bad. Another fairly easy job. If it persists after replacing the CAM timing sensor I would replace when you can.

[ATF]

So I gave up on doing the CPS myself.. I got all the hoses off, intake, throttle cable was easily unhooked, but the damn bracket that holds them on wouldn't come off w/ the hex wrenches I had.. Also the last 11mm? bolt holding the upper intake manifold on in the rear was unaccessible unless I take off the cabin airfilter housing? maybe? I don't know.. I got frustrated after dropping my sockets down the engine bay and fishing them out with magnetic grabbers that I just called it quits.

Will the dealership allow me to give them OEM parts and have them do the labor?


edit: so it writes dealership instead of s t e a lership.. weird

[JNCoulombe]

I don't know how happy a dealer will be to use your parts. I would suggest finding a good local foriegn car mechanic rather than the dealership. It is really a very simple job, no need to pay the dealer for their special expertise when any decent mechanic can do the job.

[tiFreak]

Originally Posted by ATF

edit: so it writes dealership instead of s t e a lership.. weird

wow, that is weird

[ATF]

Ken (StealthBimmer) swung by earlier this evening and helped me out with the CPS sensor. I love this forum.. We got it replaced and running in probably an hour? Maybe even less, I wasn't really timing it. It's a pain in the ass I can say that much.

At which point I also noticed that someone had backed into me, probably while parallel parking and dented my nose panel and cracked away at my right kidney grill...