The camshaft is the part of the engine that controls the valves, enabling the engine valves to open up, taking in and exhausting valves in line with the crankshaft gear. Its movement is rotation, and as it rotates, the cams – also known as the lobes – shove the valves open, moving along with the gear.
When the camshaft is not in the right position, or when the sensor of the camshaft position is bad, you might not know until the car breaks down. This is why it is necessary to know how to check if the camshaft position sensor is bad.
The best way to check if your camshaft position sensor is bad is through your odometer. If the camshaft sensor is bad, the check engine light will appear on the odometer notifying you that something is wrong with your engine.
How to check if Camshaft Position Sensor is bad
You can check if camshaft position sensor is bad through:
1. Check Engine Light
Coupled with the other signs, once there is an issue with your camshaft position sensor, or any issue at all in your engine, the ‘Check Engine light on your dashboard comes on.
The light, as the name explains, indicates that something is wrong with your engine, and you should check it out.
This is the car’s way of letting you know that your camshaft position sensor is bad, even if you know next to nothing about handling car repairs, or you are a rookie driver.
Once you see the engine light illuminate, it almost always means that there is something awry wrong with your camshaft position sensor.
2. Scan Tool
You can check if camshaft position sensor is bad by scanning the car with a scan tool. Scanning the car is the best way to know if your car’s camshaft position sensor is bad. This is because, often times, the check engine warning light can mean different things.
For example, if there is something wrong with your spark plugs, ignition coils, fuel injectors, catalytic converter, and even your oxygen sensor, etc., the check engine light will come on.
You wouldn’t know for sure what caused the light to come on until you scan the car. Please, while scanning, ensure to use an appropriate scanner that can read the camshaft position sensor.
Causes of Bad Camshaft Sensor
Causes of bad camshaft sensor are:
Overheating
The camshaft of your car can get damaged when you drive for several hours nonstop, especially on a very hot day. The heat that your engine produces, along with heat from the sun will cause your car to overheat.
Even, the heat from the sun doesn’t have to contribute if you drive nonstop for long hours. The heat from your engine is just enough to cause overheating.
Drivers are also in the habit of not protecting their cars from the sun, thinking nothing can go wrong. Well, once your car becomes extremely hot, overheating occurs, and overheating can have a huge bad effect on the inner workings of your engine.
The hotter your car gets, the more your engine overheats, and as your engine overheats, the plastic around your engine, such as the cover of your crankshaft sensor, starts to melt or crack.
When this happens, the camshaft sensor will not be able to perform its duty of transporting fuel and data to the engine of your car.
Frequent Minor Accidents
Many drivers are reckless, and from time to time, they run softly into poles or collide with another car. After the minor accident, they might ignore going for an inspection of the car when they see that the car still functions properly.
Many of them just try to replace whatever aesthetics of the car that might have been bruised, without taking cognizance of the possibility that their engine might have been affected.
Small, frequent collisions can cause wire contractions, displacements, and damages inside the car. Also, it can loosen bolts that are meant to be toughly tightened, parts of the engine, such as the oil tanks, radiator, etc., to start leaking. Little damages like this, in the long run, will affect the camshaft sensor of the car and stop the engine from working.
Wiring Problems
Bad wiring can cause contractions, sparks and lead to problems for your camshaft sensors. Bad wiring can be a result of minor accidents as stated earlier, or bad workmanship after repairs.
A bad wire will cause your camshaft sensors to fail and make your engine grounded, no matter how hard you try to start it.
Walking Crankshaft
Motorists or mechanics also identify this as ‘crank walk’. This is used to describe the slipping or gliding of your engine’s crankshaft to the belt area of the engine, where it is not supposed to be.
Your crankshaft might begin to slip up or glide around when the main core of your engine starts to wear out as a result of time, or cracks for one reason or the other.
The more this phenomenon continues and the crankshaft keeps slipping and gliding without you taking notice of it, soon enough, the crankshaft will take up a new position and stay there, vacating its original position and causing further and faster wearing out of the core of the engine.
With the crankshaft in a new, unnatural position, the metal plate will hit the sensor over and over again as the belt of the engine revolves properly.
The more the sensor takes the hit, the more the crankshaft will weaken, and the weaker it gets, the worse it becomes.
In worst-case scenarios, the crankshaft breaks up, causing the engine to stop functioning as a result of a failure of the camshaft.Â
Signs that Camshaft Position Sensor is Bad
Here are some of the signs to know that your camshaft position sensor is bad:
1. Ignition Problems
It will take longer periods, and a lot of trying before your car can ignite. This means that the camshaft sensor isn’t sending the right message to the engine, or powering enough fuel to enable the engine to start.
2. Car Surging
While driving, your car might begin to surge or jerk, that is, the engine will start to fluctuate, causing your car to shake.
The engine’s power might go off and on, low and high as it is trying to find a balance but will not. At the end of the day, it will go off suddenly once the energy in the engine dies off.
3. Bad Acceleration
Your car will have an issue accelerating because the camshaft is bad, making your engine run poorly or slowly, and not passing the right message to the right parts of the vehicle. Once the camshaft sensor starts to fail, your car might not go higher than 30 mph.
4. Bad Gas Mileage
More fuel than necessary will be consumed on even lower miles per hour because of the amount of fuel expended on trying to accelerate and get the car to run at the proper speed. To increase your gas mileage, check that the sensor is in order.
Conclusion
Ensure that you are always checking your dashboard for the “Check Engine” light before getting your car on any journey to avoid accidents.
Once you notice that your check engine light is on, the onus rests upon you to check your engine to see if the camshaft is bad.
If it is, take it to the nearest mechanic and repair your camshaft sensor before you get your car on the road for any journey.