02 taurus idles rough when cold outside

I have an 02 taurus 3.0 single cam. When you start the car when the engine is cold and it is cold outside, the engine idles rough. The engine light is on. There is a code p0340 camshaft position sensor circuit malfunction. I checked the wires, no opens or shorts. I replaced the sensor. The synchronizor is fine also. While monitoring the scan tool under these conditions while it is running rough, the cam sensor is in fail mode. Could it be the pcm? Has anyone experienced anything like this before?

Billn

The camshaft position sensor (CPS) is a pretty common item to fail on the Taurus according to numerous other posts. The sensor probably is faulty. A faulty CPS will not cause the car to not start like a faulty Crankshaft Position Sensor (CKP) would.

You may want to perform a search on this Taurus forum for "camshaft sensor" or "CPS" to get a feel for if it's something you want to tackle or if you want to take it somewhere. Those posts will also give you a feel for what you can expect it to cost either way.

-Rod

The CPS can be very touchy. On my old 01 ses it was in the dealership 3 times in a week to get the CPS changed correctly. 1st time they replaced the syncro, then the syncro skipped a tooth, then the sensor failed. finally all was well. It could still be a problem even though you changed the sensor.