Hi, I had Tires Plus look at my buick and they said the cam sensor needs to be replaced. First of all, what is it and what is it's function in the car? The guy also said my starter (which I had an idea was actually happening and why I wanted the car looked at in the first place!) was going out. So is the cam sensor something that does absolutely need to be fixed or can it wait a while? Let me know what you think! Thanks!

Any check engine lite, what are the symptoms, what made them look for this, to little info here, also what engine??

If it is a 3.8 liter motor, If your cam sensor is bad (almost always), you will have a constant Service Engine Soon (ses) light. You will notice a decrease in power (a little bit), and the computer will go to a preprogrammed fuction, to guess approxametily when the cam sensor magnet would tdc. I tried to fix my cam sensor, it would on being the magnet, and i found it to be not worth it to fix..... But the thing you will see, is a deffinet decrease in gas milage (thats what i saw).


But if they looked through a Scan tool, they may have seen that the camshaft sensor wasnt sending the correct voltage, or may have been hit and miss signal wise (shift the pigtail a little bit, maybe worked here, or worked there.....)

Bill

The pigtail ? I can't seem to locate this connector. In Haynes it shows a lousy pic (aren't they all), of what might be in the gear-rack boot location ( I wish they's show an exploded view of engine area also to help beam in). It took me forever to find the VSS connection, and after I whacked it with a snow brush SES light went out.BUT shortly after the Cam SES light came on.
So I will go this endless cycle of whacking connectors.........
Anyone got a definate location, or a pic of Cam sensor ?

The pigtail ? I can't seem to locate this connector. In Haynes it shows a lousy pic (aren't they all), of what might be in the gear-rack boot location ( I wish they's show an exploded view of engine area also to help beam in). It took me forever to find the VSS connection, and after I whacked it with a snow brush SES light went out.BUT shortly after the Cam SES light came on.
So I will go this endless cycle of whacking connectors.........
Anyone got a definate location, or a pic of Cam sensor ?
Try autozone.com/repairinfo.

the cam sensor is on the timing cover, behind the water pump near the cam sprocket

There is a magnet on the top timing gear that falls off once in a while.The cam sensor reads off of that magnet.Ran into that,put a cam sensor in a 1991 Olds 98 and did not fix it.Finally pulled the timing cover off and that magnet fell off.Put a new one on and it was fixed with no comeback yet