Camshaft position sensor.....faulty (zd30 crd.. 2008 )

Engine light came on (Friday) indicating a fault. Booked in at Nissan dealer (after long weekend) for diagnosis. Light went out on Monday (or stopped showing) .Dealer did diag. check Tuesday with result "camshaft position sensor faulty, requires replacement".
Wagon is running well although feels a bit down on grunt but that may be imagination. I presume if the computer is missing info. re TDC or whatever, it must be running the engine on some sort of default setting otherwise it would presumably simply shut down. Either that or the problem has gone but that would infer the dealer was pulling my leg and I doubt that.

Quote for the sensor $150.00 with labour $120.00.

Any ideas out there about what's the problem and possible fixes? Why did the 'error' light go off with no fix? Does it automativally go off after a set time?
What's the meaning of life????

Thanks for your thoughts
Col.

Cam or crankshaft?

Good day Ballarat
According to te printed report, the camshaft.
I noticed in the manual some refernce to the crankshaft position sensor and wondered whether the timing chain connection between the two effectively meant they used the two terms equally. Seemed strange thiough.
I'm having trouble downloading the last two manual supplements covering the CRD model and I therefore may be missing something vital.
Thanks for the assistance
Col.

These things only send data to ecu.
so unless cam shaft is broken or bent, not likely.
An simple electronic fault.
Bit weird this part failing so young.
Could even be just a dirty connection.
Been doing any work on it, that you may of accidently knocked a elec plug a bit.
Not a bad price, seen alot dearer.
Then again maybe just bad part these thing happen.

Robo,
thanks for that.
Haven't touched under the bonnet in any way to cause mischief since the last service I did. As I don't know where the sensor is I can't trace leads etc. back anyway.
Any suggestions there?
Also, do you know what are the short/long term implications of delaying a fix?
Again, thanks
Col

Pretty common for a sensor like this to fail intermittantly, the light might stay on for a certain amount of ignition cycles after that fault.
There's no way of telling how often it will play up again, if at all. The engine shouldn't shut down as (like you said) it can run off the crank sensor, it may just eliminate a few different modes - for example, cars that I've played with will still run without a cam sensor signal but won't have 'sequential injection' mode.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Col.T

Robo,
thanks for that.
Haven't touched under the bonnet in any way to cause mischief since the last service I did. As I don't know where the sensor is I can't trace leads etc. back anyway.
Any suggestions there?
Also, do you know what are the short/long term implications of delaying a fix?
Again, thanks
Col

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poor fuel consumption figures.
power should be down.
incorrect timing
lots of things, get fix asap

Beargust, Robbo ,
thanks for those replies.
Don't you just love the 21st. Century. Totally electronic and you get to spend 300 bucks and not even have a clue why? Far out!
Col.

Prefer the here and now.
yeah it makes you think but that shows your alive and kick-en.

Robo
been a few days but what the !!
I've got the on line manual which I've used a lot but not sure where the cam. sensor appears.
Any chance you can refer me to the appropriate section / page? No biggie but wouldn't mind having a look before I go back to Nissan.
Thanks again
Col