By not?

Update?

No real update dubi. However, the starting has changed where it's about 50/50 start first try/multiple tries to start. So, I'm thinking cam sensor.

My issue is do I want to replace it myself, or go get a second opinion. Or just tannerite the sucker and call it a day. Decisions, decisions.

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No real update dubi. However, the starting has changed where it's about 50/50 start first try/multiple tries to start. So, I'm thinking cam sensor.

My issue is do I want to replace it myself, or go get a second opinion. Or just tannerite the sucker and call it a day. Decisions, decisions.

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Mr Dubi and I are in if you do option #3!

Good luck.

Cam position sensor: $80 plus labor.

30 lbs of tannerite: about $150.

Hmm....

I'll PayPal you the $150!

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We paid Agmechanic to replace the timing belt and water pump on our 05 Tundra.

We dropped it off and went scuba diving for a week, then picked it up when we got back!

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Fixing that connector was the hardest part

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Makes a guy miss his VW Bug.

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Amen. Those things were like working on a lawnmower.

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We paid Agmechanic to replace the timing belt and water pump on our 05 Tundra.

We dropped it off and went scuba diving for a week, then picked it up when we got back!

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Fixing that connector was the hardest part

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The cam position connector? Any sage advice before I rip this thing apart again?

I punted and took the truck to the local stealership today just to put a second set of eyes on the problem.

Diagnosis: failed cam position sensor.

Dealership cost to replace: $634. LOLNO. I will do it myself. Sometime. This year. Probably.

Consumers and repairs/maintenance do not even enter the equation. The factory designs these things for maximum production while assembling the vehicle and only provides a cursory thought to repairs or maintenance.

The more difficult they make routine maintenance, the more apt the consumer is to take the vehicle to the dealership. That bodes well for both dealers and the factory because of the requirement to use only OEM parts.

If actual maintenance and ownership was taken into account, vehicle engine design would be significantly different than it is.

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Consumers and repairs/maintenance do not even enter the equation. The factory designs these things for maximum production while assembling the vehicle and only provides a cursory thought to repairs or maintenance.

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Having owned multiple brands/vehicles, the truth of this sentiment varies based on manufacturer. As ironic as this statement is, being in this thread, Toyota/Lexus are by far the easiest to work on. This project was not fun, but I blame a heavy dose of that on operator error.

The 2 BMWs and 2 Mercedes I have owned have nearly required a Luftwaffe mechanic and a knowledge of the German language just to pop the hood. That's embellishment of course, but undoubtedly something would break/leak buried super deep in the engine compartment, and you'd have to rip the engine apart and curse every idiot from the school of German technik just to replace a $1 O-ring.

So, I think the Japanese brands try to make it easier to work on them. The Europeans want to punish you as much as possible and the Americans are somewhere in the middle.

American vehicles piss me off more than any of them. At least with Japanese, Korean or European I know I'm using a metric socket set. With American vehicles, you need standard and metric, and both at the same time for the same bolts that hold the same bracket on.

If vehicles were designed with maintenance in mind, they would be completely different. Routine things like oil filters and air filters would be common sizes and easily accessible. Stupid things like the flow of the oil from the pan would be taken into account. What happens when you break the seal on the oil filter would be taken into account. Transmission filters would be easy to change, differential oil would be easy to change. I've never understood why bolts were not, as much as practical, the same bolt on a vehicle. In a perfect world, you would be able to near disassemble anything on a vehicle with a 1/2" or 9/16" or 13mm wrench or socket and not have to have 187 different specialty tools. And the bolts would have their size stamped on the head.

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always pay for timing belt service - but DIY everything else

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this. so much this.

There is an old joke that 100 years ago an engineer's wife ran off with a mechanic and engineers have held a grudge ever since.

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always pay for timing belt service - but DIY everything else

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this. so much this.

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I give up. Trying to post in image in a thread where I've failed compounds the massive fail. Meta fail.

You can pretty much disassemble a LS motor with a 8mm, 10mm, 13mm, & 15mm. Only fasteners I can think of that aren't in the above is the crank bolt & knock sensors.

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There is an old joke that 100 years ago an engineer's wife ran off with a mechanic and engineers have held a grudge ever since.

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You can pretty much disassemble a LS motor with a 8mm, 10mm, 13mm, & 15mm. Only fasteners I can think of that aren't in the above is the crank bolt & knock sensors.

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Silvy, you can dissasemble most any car engine on the planet with those sizes. I would wear out those size in 1/4 inch drive every 6 months. Snap-On man kept them in stock for me

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American vehicles piss me off more than any of them. At least with Japanese, Korean or European I know I'm using a metric socket set. With American vehicles, you need standard and metric, and both at the same time for the same bolts that hold the same bracket on.

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I havent used an SAE socket on anything american built after around 1995.

Every bolt that I have touched has been with metric sizes.

Only time I have used 1/2" or 5/8" on a car is when it was a 13mm or 15mm and rounded off.

You haven't worked on a Jeep, brah

spend some time on a small, mid-engine Italian V8 and get back to me about "working on cars"...other than fluid changes and maybe some other easy stuff...the new one's going to the shop for everything else.

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You can pretty much disassemble a LS motor with a 8mm, 10mm, 13mm, & 15mm. Only fasteners I can think of that aren't in the above is the crank bolt & knock sensors.

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Silvy, you can dissasemble most any car engine on the planet with those sizes. I would wear out those size in 1/4 inch drive every 6 months. Snap-On man kept them in stock for me

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Not every engine... there seems to be three sets of "standard" metric sizes used (different hex bolt head sizes for the same threads):
American: 10, 13, 15, 18, 21mm
European: 10, 13, 16, 18, 21
Asian: 10, 12, 14, 17, 19, 22
and somewhat random as to whether the next smaller size will be 7 or 8mm. This also doesn't include 12-point, Allen, Torx, triple square (XZN), etc. which some manufacturers (*cough* VW) are fond of using.

I think Ford used SAE lug nuts on the F-150 through '96, and Dodge/Ram still is, unless they recently changed. I remember a friend complaining that a shop messed up his Charger by using a 21mm impact on the 13/16" lug nuts (didn't help that they were of the crappy two-piece Chrysler design).

The Chevy 350 block (and thus, the 4.3 V6 used until 2013 -- not the new 4.3, though) was SAE, but the Vortec heads/intake were tapped for metric. TBI heads/intake were SAE, but a lot of the accessory brackets were metric.

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You haven't worked on a Jeep, brah

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This is why....

UNIONS

Well well well

Removed the camshaft position sensor and whaddyaknow...


New sensor arrives in the morning.

Not sure how I sheared it to be honest. The wires were tucked behind the black piece below, which I never touched. I guess my tugging on it while trying to pull the cover off got it.

Install point


Engine pic

Trying to post pic from imgur, but texags doesn't want to cooperate. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Edit: so you have to add .jpg to the link. Got it.

Glad you solved it!

Gracias amigo.

Put in new sensor, everything working fine again.

Whoop!