silverSEV8
New member
Wanted to take a second to do a brief write up / tell a funny story in case others find themselves in the same situation with their '05+ V8 (vvti matters) -
The CEL / all VSC related dash lights came on in May. I've been reading about this and "fixes" people did to eliminate. Multiple ECU reset attempts, a new battery & new gas cap later, I was still lit up and now the car was having trouble turning over on the first try & seemed to be running bad so I finally got wise and got the CEL codes pulled. Advance Auto Dude says codes P0335 (crankshaft position sensor malfunction) and Toyota codes P1340 / P1341 (didn't research at this point) were the culprits. At that point I made the uneducated decision to go ahead and replace the Crankshaft Position Sensor because a faulty one can throw the lights on the dash AND cause the starting / performance issues. It was $80 at Rockauto and fairly easy to get to at the bottom of the engine, beside the oil filter. Feeling proud of the replacement and excited to reset the ECU, I later found myself pissed when the **** didn't work. I finally gave up 5 months after the problem started and called Toyota preparing to grab my ankles. I explained the problem and the dude says "wait, I've heard of that on a TSB!". Happy to hear there could be an end in sight, I told him the codes that had been pulled. He read off the TSB that if P0335 and P1340 or P1341 were hitting at the same time, that pointed to the Camshaft Position Sensor - a part that Toyota revised at some point to prevent common failures, thus the TSB (# unknown).
I said I REALLY didn't want to pay for more than just the part if possible so I hung up and started searching the web for where the Camshaft Position Sensor was and how hard it was to get it. I found a Toyota how to document and it didn't look like a easy project - draining the radiator, removing oil cooling lines, removing the timing cover, etc. At that point I again braced myself for a good dealership reaming and called the Toyota dude back. He chuckled and said "that'll be a good 2 hours plus the part so we are looking at just under 4 bills". That hurt. I told him I needed some time to recover and would call back to schedule. After hearing that number I got off my ass and went down to the car to actually see if there was a unofficial way to get in the timing cover.
START DEALERSHIP FAIL HERE.....
To my amazement, I see a wire resting up against the fan belt nearly worn through. WTH is that I thought. Then I followed it and guess what...it went straight in the camshaft cover. I called dude back with new found energy and said "so I think you guys ****ed up" - or something like that. I went on to tell him that when they replaced my timing belt in April, Joe Numb Nuts routed the Camshaft Position sensor wire outside the oil cooling line instead of inside through a bracket that was obvious to see under my hood - just without the wire running through. You get the picture by now. I took the car in, pointed and said "fix it" while watching as they got upset that my money was going to stay in my wallet, this time.
In the end, that same situation will most likely never happen to anyone else, but IF you get those codes, don't assume crankshaft sensor like I did.
The CEL / all VSC related dash lights came on in May. I've been reading about this and "fixes" people did to eliminate. Multiple ECU reset attempts, a new battery & new gas cap later, I was still lit up and now the car was having trouble turning over on the first try & seemed to be running bad so I finally got wise and got the CEL codes pulled. Advance Auto Dude says codes P0335 (crankshaft position sensor malfunction) and Toyota codes P1340 / P1341 (didn't research at this point) were the culprits. At that point I made the uneducated decision to go ahead and replace the Crankshaft Position Sensor because a faulty one can throw the lights on the dash AND cause the starting / performance issues. It was $80 at Rockauto and fairly easy to get to at the bottom of the engine, beside the oil filter. Feeling proud of the replacement and excited to reset the ECU, I later found myself pissed when the **** didn't work. I finally gave up 5 months after the problem started and called Toyota preparing to grab my ankles. I explained the problem and the dude says "wait, I've heard of that on a TSB!". Happy to hear there could be an end in sight, I told him the codes that had been pulled. He read off the TSB that if P0335 and P1340 or P1341 were hitting at the same time, that pointed to the Camshaft Position Sensor - a part that Toyota revised at some point to prevent common failures, thus the TSB (# unknown).
I said I REALLY didn't want to pay for more than just the part if possible so I hung up and started searching the web for where the Camshaft Position Sensor was and how hard it was to get it. I found a Toyota how to document and it didn't look like a easy project - draining the radiator, removing oil cooling lines, removing the timing cover, etc. At that point I again braced myself for a good dealership reaming and called the Toyota dude back. He chuckled and said "that'll be a good 2 hours plus the part so we are looking at just under 4 bills". That hurt. I told him I needed some time to recover and would call back to schedule. After hearing that number I got off my ass and went down to the car to actually see if there was a unofficial way to get in the timing cover.
START DEALERSHIP FAIL HERE.....
To my amazement, I see a wire resting up against the fan belt nearly worn through. WTH is that I thought. Then I followed it and guess what...it went straight in the camshaft cover. I called dude back with new found energy and said "so I think you guys ****ed up" - or something like that. I went on to tell him that when they replaced my timing belt in April, Joe Numb Nuts routed the Camshaft Position sensor wire outside the oil cooling line instead of inside through a bracket that was obvious to see under my hood - just without the wire running through. You get the picture by now. I took the car in, pointed and said "fix it" while watching as they got upset that my money was going to stay in my wallet, this time.
In the end, that same situation will most likely never happen to anyone else, but IF you get those codes, don't assume crankshaft sensor like I did.
