Oldblue

Have you checked the ground wires at the engine / transmission and the truck area near the battery

user 72098230

That's my plans for tomorrow. Hopefully the Haynes manual will give me the specific locations for the engine and transmission if they aren't visually obvious.

donbrew

Haynes Chilton same company, BTW.

My point about "learning how to Google" is don't read the first result and take it for gospel. You really need to read several to get a real meaning.

For instance; p0011-p0014 often return results of sensor mismatch or some such. I've run into 2 mechanics in the last month that were getting ready to tear engines down to find The sensors. What it really means is the VVT valve is not functioning properly, thus causing a disagreement between The sensor and the VVT actuator.

You lest that stuff by spending an hour or two reading Google results.

user 72098230

Well I feel like this is my "Walk Of Shame" post.

My mechanic felt the cause of the codes was a faulty sensor so I replaced it. I reset the codes, took the car for a 10 mile drive, no code. (when he cleared the codes and took it for a drive, both codes came back right away) This morning when I started the car the check engine light was on again. I drove to work, checked the codes and it was the P0340. I Googled it yet again, and came up with a page that gave all the possible causes, the first being a faulty sensor, which I have now eliminated. But the next two causes are "Harness is open or shorted" and "poor electrical connection". The last 3 possible causes are:
Faulty Starter Motor
Starting System Circuit
Dead (Weak) Battery

I guess I'm just gonna have to try to trace the wire back and look for a fault somewhere.

Oldblue

Ground wires and connections are the easiest and cheapest start to look into! No shame just keep looking till you find the problem.

user 72098230

Ok, it appears I finally have a resolution. Let me start off by saying this, I'm a Baby Boomer turned IT guy, meaning I was not brought up amongst all the wonderful technology we have today. IT was a second career after being in retail for 20 yrs. I see how difficult it is for people of my generation to understand even the simplest of Computer 101. I was in a job where I actually had to teach school secretaries how to use a mouse before I could begin to teach them about the software that was installed on their computers. When I write up an instructional document I like to say that I write it in terms that I can understand and follow it, leaving out nothing for self interpretation or figuring out, meaning someone who is totally clueless. That might be exaggerating slightly but you get my point. That said........

The P0341 was resolved by replacing the intake cam sensor (which my mechanic said is not actually a sensor but an actuator that adjusts the position of the cam) located on top of the head, passenger side, under the air cleaner housing. Replacing that part got rid of code and the hesitation I had been experiencing.

But still having the P0340 code, there was something still not right, and even though my mechanic said I could drive the car, I did so sparingly because I was concerned about possibly causing the part I just replaced to go bad. Like I said I checked, and cleaned a few grounding spots I had found, along with the other locations mentioned previously. When I first read in another post or forum that someone had their wiring harness replaced to the tune of several hundred dollars to resolve a similar electrical issue, in my mind the word harness meant every wire I was seeing under the hood, which is something I would never even think of having done. With this whole process dragging on way longer than I felt was necessary (my mechanic's shop is like the Cheers bar, always someone in there BS-ing and he had other jobs he was concentrating on),I had my mechanic order the cam sensor that is on the drivers side of the head but on the side, facing in a slightly downward position. Replacing it was easy enough, but still the P0340 code came back immediately. With that I went back to the shop and waited the hour and a half for him to be able to give me a few minutes, which is all it really took. He asked me if I checked the wires at the sensor connector itself. And I said well I was able to get the connector off, and nothing was visibly broken. He rechecked the code with his $5k reader and said it's saying there's something wrong in the circuit, not the sensor, so he got a small mirror and looked at the connector wires and said something looks wrong on the blue wire. I disconnected it to be able to get it out in the open for a better look, and he was right, it was a little off color, and it was melted to the wire next to it. He pulled it and it broke right off. It was so close to the connector that there was only 1/16th of an inch of slack sticking out of the connector. Even still we were able to strip enough wire back and get it soldered back together. He told me to take car for a ride. No more code! At least that was yesterday.

He said that the larger part of the harness was resting on where the wire was connected to the sensor, and there was a bend. After 8 yrs and 150k+ miles, all the vibration (slight though it was) had caused that connection to go bad. Even though soldering it fixed it, he ordered me another connector so that I can redo the whole thing and there won't be undo stress on one wire being shorter than the others. He said that his supplier had that connector in stock, and what does that tell you? It's gone bad on other cars.

So when I heard harness, I thought of the big picture, not one connection. Hopefully this long, detailed and boring (to most) explanation will help someone down the road, in a shorter time than it took me.

Thanks again to all who commented.

Don06

Thanks for returning to post the solution. At least the connector is available. We have forklifts that have a problem with an oxygen sensor connection because the harness was a little short. The connector is not available except in a $4,000 complete wiring harness. I was able to solder wires onto it. Once we discovered the problem, we spliced extra wire into the other units to prevent the failure.

donbrew

Actually a new harness can be had for less than you think and anyone with eyes and hands could install it.

It basically has a large plug on one end at the ECM then runs across the front side of the engine around to the rear, with connectors at obvious points. The connections are pretty much idiot proof.

Oh, and go back and read post#4 in this thread.

user 72098230

Case in point, had I known then what I know now, post #4 would have made more sense. Had I written it, it would have said "check individual wires at the sensor connector for possible corrosion or burn marks and solid connectivity."

Also, I thought a wiring harness was the whole shebang from bumper to bumper. Had someone said what you just said about there being a separate harness for the engine compartment and all you have to do is follow the pattern, that sounds very doable.

I remember the first time I said the word "assume" to my first retail manager. I was 18. He sat me down wrote out the word and then using 3 circles around "ass" "u" and "me". I never forgot it, and that was the start of my "stupid proof" style writing of documents!

Our teachers in high school always said, "I'm not gonna spoon feed you, here's the book, you have to figure things out for yourself". Hence my poor math grades. Fast forward 20 yrs later when I went back to college, I had an Algebra teacher that believed in spoon feeding. She taught the way I/we learned, wrote things out in detail on the black board, or was it the white board? Doesn't matter, she left no chance of mistake, and I had straight As in that course.

firemangeorge

Camshaft position sensors.
Camshaft position actuator solenoids.

2 totally different parts and locations on the engine.