[egstasea]

I have a 98 windstar with the 3.8 93,000 miles. I have a steady cel on, and had the codes read at autozone. I had p0340 camshaft position sensor, p1537, p1538 IMRC open front and back. With the help of this site I was able determine the front imrc needs replacing. I pulled and plugged the vacuum lines independently, and found when I pulled and plugged the front the back IMRC worked. When I pulled and plugged the back the front did nothing. I verified the plunger does stroke. The conclusion is the front one has a bad diaphram. I am resigned to pay the dealer price, unless someone knows of a cheaper source. Here is the question, the haines manual says I need to take the air intake plenumn off to change this. From what I can see i should not have to, am I missing something?

Now on to the cps, I was thinking that I would do a quick sensor change until I read a few posts mentioning that if the p0340 is accompanied by a squeal, the problem might have something to do with the shaft that drives the sensor. Of course I had a squeal show up about the same time as the cel came on. I thought it was the belt, so I changed it even though it did not look too bad. I cleared the p0340, but it comes right back, but with out the squealing. Maybe the squealing was the belt after all. So how do I tell if just need the sensor, or if I have problem with the shaft?