Hahaha...that's why I put an android tablet in my dash


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My car is now parked safely in my garage and it made it there with the engine running smoothly. That in itself made the situation much better. Now I can properly diagnose the problem step by step to find the true culprit. I did notice that if I rev the car in idle, the trani noise doesn't seem to get louder, but if I put the car in gear and move it from stand still, the noise is more prominent. potential clutch/flywheel problem?

One thing is for certain, I'll need a new tensioner pulley to replace the one that is going. I'm also going to pull out the oil filter and cut up the filter to see if it'll show me anything. I'm still deciding if I should change the oil too (I've put almost 3k miles on it but I changed the oil about 1 month ago).

I'm also going to pull out the sensor in question and test it for a bad connection. Then i'll swap it with the working sensor and see if the engine light follows it.

Lastly, I'm starting to consider that I may want to stop putting of the imsb retrofit, since maybe the clutch/flywheel assembly may be the cause of the trani noise. I found a cool autoshop in Santa Clara, CA that rents their lifts for $15/hr and supplies you with a variety f standard and air tools. I figure if the job take me 10 hours, or $150 of rental time, that will still be less than the price of the tools I will need to get to be able to do the retrofit at home.

I'm just happy I was able to get home unscathed and be able to start the diagnosis process.

Good to hear the noise isn't in the engine! Maybe it's a wheel bearing or CV joint...

One of the two noises is coming from the dying idler pulley. The other sounds to be coming from somewhere in the transmission, considering, putting my phone right next to the rear of the transmission gives the loudest indication of the noise. The noise exists even when the car is idling in place, so I don't think it has to do with the wheels. My optimistic guess is that something in the clutch assembly is starting to go. But like I said, this has prompted me enough to do the ims bearing retrofit since I want to pull off the train and see if the transmission noise does indeed have to do with the clutch.

I'm far from out of the woods yet, but I now have a plan of attack.

1) check oil filter

2) test/replace camshaft position sensor

3) pull apart transmission and check/replace clutch

4) ims retrofit

I'll keep you us posted in case someone else stumbles across a similar scenario. Any other suggestions or recommendations are appreciated.

I'm having such a hard time figuring out which camshaft position sensor corresponds to p0343 code.

I see one in the front behind the drivers seat on a LHD car and one in the back right by the AOS. Short of pulling the plug to one and seeing what happens, can anyone help me figure out which is which?

I just figured out that it is the one behind the passenger seat by the AOS. I resulted to pulling the plug on one to read the code. Looks like I'll be pulling out the AOS to get to the sensor and figure out if it's bad...

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Camshaft sensor check engine light
 

Well, I swapped the two camshaft sensors and replaced the bad idler pulley on the car last weekend. My car still hasn't finished its readiness tests since the last code clear, but no CELs so far.

After removing the old idler pulley, it's evident it was bad. When I shake the pulley, It sounds like a bag of marbles comin from inside the bearing, I can't wait to open it up and see what the bearing internals look like.

I'm not sure if the sensor failure was a hiccup, or if a connection had gone bad, but unplugging it reconnecting it seems to have helped? I'm still keeping a watchful eye on the situation to see what happens.

Oh yeah, I pulled out the filter and ripped it apart like a madman. I ran a magnet over it but got no ferrous metal at all... I'm still planning on doing the retrofit, but my car is a 2000 year and the door jam says it was manufactured in January. Does that mean it's a duel row or single row bearing?

What's the typical time for the secondary air to finish emissions readiness test? My 99 finished all tests after a code clear in about 90 miles


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