P0340 Code/camshaft position sensor

My 2003 4.7 liter has failed to start after 367,000 successful miles. It started at a friends house after several attempts but was jumpy (has always started on the first crank for 18 years). Once started, I drove it home and it ran as normal. When I got there, I turned it off and tried to start it again It will turn over but it but won’t start. I’m getting the P0340 code which shows it is the camshaft position sensor bank 1. Has anyone had this problem? If so, is it something I can repair myself? I’m decent at making repairs but not a mechanic. I’m having a hard time finding videos of a repair. I’m thinking the sensor is accessible behind the timing belt cover.

 

Often the timing belt eats the wires. Not sure anyone's has actually failed, but it's possible. Drivers side of engine behind the timing cover. Check the wires first.

 

Currently going through a timing belt job on my truck. Here's the pictures of my current sensor on the drivers side cam.


Might not be a bad idea to do the Timing belt, or water pump if you don't know the last time they were changed.

Here's the Toyota Part number for the Camshaft Position Sensor: 19300-50020

 

Thanks Knabores and Noah! Wow great pic of the damage the timing belt can do to the wiring. I’m going to remove the cover and inspect. Thanks again!

 

I had the timing belt changed out at 130k, and then again at 280K. I’m at 367k now. If it shows any wear, it wouldn’t hurt to change it again. That’s the one repair I haven’t attempted yet, but at $800-$900 a pop, I probably need to study up and dive in.

 

It's a long job, but it's not too bad. The camshaft sensor fault showed up at the perfect mileage too, almost 90K after the last belt change. You'll want to throw a water pump, tensioner and idler pulleys on it while it's apart, and a new radiator if it's still on the original. Grab the tool that holds the harmonic balancer while you loosen the crank pulley bolt before you start, and a balancer puller if you don't have one already. The only other thing I can think of to make the job easier is a 3/4" drive breaker bar for the crank pulley bolt. A 1/2" drive will do the job, but the 3/4" drive doesn't flex when you slip a long bar over it for leverage.

 

Whoooooa!!! Easy with that new radiator talk. Sensitive subject apparently.....

 

Yah, but it was $113 from rockauto so for that price why not?

 

Stop making sense!!!!

 

As some one who just wrapped up the timing belt, and water pump portion of the engine maintenance on mine, totally agree with everything here. Read up on it, Watch videos, and make your own assessment about your feasibility to do this job. I watched !a-Auto videos on YouBooob. Two parts. Great video in my opinion.

LABEL YOUR BOLTS. I learned that lesson the hard way... Still not sure where one nut goes.........
Zip lock bag with a scrap of paper in them for a label. Or write on the bag.

Use Aisin branded stuff if you can. No need to go OEM on all of it.

 

Well I’ve had some family medical issues but I finally got a chance to dig into it. Thanks to you guys, right off the bat I see the problem. The wire has been rubbing the serpentine belt probably ever since my last timing belt change. It is chewed into pretty bad! So is it possible to just change the cam position sensor by removing the timing belt cover and probably the fan/shroud to create some room? Or is it so involved that it’s a no brainer to go ahead and replace the timing belt and all?

 

What did you end up doing for this? I might be in the same boat.

 

Clearly, removed the timing cover, and repaired or (ideally) replaced the cam sensor on whichever side was eaten through.

It's not uncommon for either cam sensor OR the crank position sensor to get eaten through if the person doing your timing belt change makes the stupid mistake of not restraining the harnesses for those three sensors correctly.

 

I had a shop replace mine and was in and out in under an hour so it's probably not a hard fix.

 

Legit, from what I've seen from one of the other dudes on here with an earlier model swap his. Earlier models had a defect, they didn't have a retention clip for the harness attached to the body of the sensor, so it could easily drift in peril's way. It looked like it was as easy as removing the timing cover, unclip the sensor, pop out a bolt, pull sensor, then install and do the reverse.

Actually, hell, @Tundra2 worked on one of his that was nicked, he could probably say.

 

I was assuming it would have been the same level of effort as doing the timing belt. Requiring removal of the radiator and other components... You think it is possible to remove just the cover and swap out the sensor? Maybe potentially repair the broken wire on the sensor?

 

I think @Tundra2 maybe did his while doing the timing belt, but I don't remember.

I grabbed the attached PDF from TS covering ignition components, cam/crank sensors, coils, etc. Page 3 shows removal of cam sensor, page 2 shows reinstall. It only calls for draining the coolant, but not how much or why. But I'd reference the service manuals etc. linked near the top intro of this thread.

When I looked at my 2UZ, I see how/why you may want to drain for the passenger side cam cover, but not the driver's side. Although there's a coolant pipe of some sort near the base of the driver's side cover. You'd definitely want to remove the drive belt to make it easier to work.

 

Thanks for all the valuable information! I'll look into it and see if I can confirm it's the sensor and get the car running again before I tear into the whole timing belt process (which I do need to do. Truck is new to be but the last belt job was done about 80k miles ago).

 

Okay radiator and fan are out. I'm just going to do the timing job... On the hunt for all the parts I should replace along the way.

As for the camshaft position sensor... Should I replace both or just the side throwing the code?

In the process the crankshaft position sensor connection got soaked with coolant... Is this anything I should worry about?

Finally as for the camshaft position sensor... OEM is generally best bet but it's really expensive. Who makes these sensors for Toyota? Is there a reliable after market manufacturer that makes these for Toyota that I can get at a more reasonable price?

 

Here's the kit you'll want, includes tensioner and pulley: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/asn-tkt-021
The kit ending '001' doesn't include the tensioner, you really want to replace it while in there.

Don't buy on scAmazon or fleaBay, check RockAuto for better pricing.

Check both, but replace one throwing the code knowing that, IIRC, there was a TSB for the '00-01 or '00-02 regarding the cam sensor design, lack of a restraint let to it getting caught in the belt - maybe it was only driver side. I don't remember and I'm too lazy to look it up this AM (I think it's in the sticky 'so you wanna buy a Tundra' thread, TSB section in 2nd reply.)

coolant is pretty harmless. Major concern is being careful to look at how it's routed and/or verify it's routed correctly after you finish TB/WP.

I mean, best price I see is $127 with no tax and free ship with coupon FREESHIP at Serra in Birmingham. (actually, see new link from OP below)

I'd expect DENSO makes it, but they don't show it in their parts system. I checked Aisin, but their parts catalog is f'd up. It's possible someone else like Bosch or Hitachi makes it, their parts are usually pretty solid.

 

Thank you again for all the valueble info. I'll go check the sticky thread you mentioned about the TSB for the 00-02 sensors. As my truck is an 01. Will try to avoid Amazon as you said not worth the risk for the counterfeits.

Thanks for the advice I'll try to research those 4 brands for a sensor. Ultimately might make sense just to go with OEM and be done with it. The link you shared here for the sensor part looks to lead to fitments for the fitment list they provide. Does this happen to be the same part for the 4.7? I just didn't see any 4.7 vehicles listed.

 

Should be for 4.7, yes. It probably fits all engine options for 2000-2004, which is why they don't list. but please, don't trust me on this, I don't work for toyota. The parts fitment wizard is on that page for a reason:

​

 

Good advice as always... Looks like that one does not fit the 4.7 according to the wizard. Linking the 4.7 part in case someone else stumbles upon this thread in the future. Part #: 19300-50020.

https://parts.serratoyota.com/p/Toy...haft-Position-Sensor/63035976/1930050020.html

 

Good call, and it's cheaper! Win-win. I'll update my reply above to help avoid future confusion.

 

So I finally got into the engine timing cover and found that my belt is snapped. This sucks! I bought the car and then only drove it for 2 weeks before the belt went and it's been sitting for months.

Anyway, so I guess I just have to change the timing belt and hope the car still okay. Since it's an interference engine, there's definitely potential of engine damage, but from what I researched it seems like this engine survives most of the time. The belt snapped while my girlfriend was driving and she was in a parking lot. I don't think she was moving and didn't hear any weird noise so that gives me some hope.

As for the camshaft position sensor, I just looked up some bench testing techniques for it. It seems like mine is fine with no issues on the bench test with a multimeter despite the fact that it was throwing the code. I don't see any damage on the sensor wire. I'll have to better inspect the harness later.

The sensor itself says it is from Denso made in Japan. So that must be the OEM in case anyone was wondering.

I uploaded a photo of the only markings I was able to find on the sensor itself.

B-5
Denso
Japan

 

This is why I always recommend new owners stick their eyeballs on the timing belt as soon as (or even before) they purchase. Just because it's went the last 17 years doesn't mean it'll last another 2 weeks I suppose.

Just make sure and get your timing set just right when putting on your new belt. We love to see pics of what's left of the old belt when you get that far. Hope all is well with the engine. Does seem somewhat common for no damage when the belt breaks if it breaks at just the right time.

 

That's damn good advice and I wish I had it before hand. Would have negotiated the price accordingly and changed the belt first thing.

I am not a mechanic and pretty ignorant with cars. However I been wrenching on my own motorcycles for years and more basic DIY car stuff as well (nothing engine related).

Here's what I snapped earlier of the belt... I'll get better photos when I remove the lower cover to take the belt out. it looks like it's a Gates belt. Felt pretty dry and cracked... I swear I'd seen a service record showing belt was last changed about 75k miles ago but I can't seem to find it now to confirm. Definitely not OEM or from the Aisin kit.

Been a huge learning experience.

 

The belt as-pictured, surface-wise, doesn't look that bad. When you bend it back over itself to loop it, does it show lots of cracks at the flex? Just curious. Snap pattern is different than I'd expect.

ftfy

You may get lucky. You can always manually cycle the engine over at the HB, through a few rotations, check for differences in resistance. Hopefully the g/f wasn't just sitting there trying to turn it over repeatedly after dying.

Scroll up in the thread, you'll see pics of the typical damage with nicks. Damage is typically seen on the pigtail. You may've actually been throwing codes not because of the sensor failing, but because no cam rotation was seen during turnover ... because the timing belt wasn't rotating the cams? Again, suggesting someone was trying to turn the engine over after the belt snapped, which isn't the best situation either.

I'd buy the Aisin kit with new tensioner (of course, confirm applicable fitment).

If you need videos of the process, some really good ones have been posted on here, I can dig up links. I've posted my one or two favorites a number of times.

 

Here's images of the belt and current state of my engine bay.
Asked GF about when it snapped as she was the one driving. She was in a parking lot at goodwill rolling at 2mph through the drive thru donation line. She did not hear any weird noise knock or pop or anything simply the engine turned off the. Wouldn't start.

I'm sure she attempted to start it several times as did I when first diagnosing the problem as I initially thought it was a fuel pump issue. When attempting to turn over no indication of something bad but who knows....

Just crossing my fingers and hoping changing the belt kit will be all I need.

I was initially going to replace other parts along the way such as thermostat and radiator and a few others but not knowing if there's damage to the engine I may hold off on those for now.

Is there any way I can check if any damage was done in the current state? Is there an easy way to check the valves?

 

Bore scope camera down the spark plug holes would probably be best. See what the tops of the pistons look like. May be hard to see your valves though.