Engine Not Starting After Identifying And Reconnecting Cam Sensor

mafp · February 21, 2015

Hi all.

Yesterday i bought a IS200 W reg with 100k miles on it. the car started easily every time i went to see it three days in the evenings, although the oil control valve was broken, and if it was pluged by hand (as the connector was broken) the car will start. idling was fine at the time even with the oil control valve disconnected.

throttle response was sluggish although considering the role of the oil control valve i thought nothing of it.

today i decided to have a look, and started by connecting an ODBII diagnostics to it, and got three error codes, these being p0340, p0340* and p1656.

p1656 corresponded to the oil control valve, this was changed, the error cleared, and verified that did not reappeared, which it not appear again, The engine failed to start after this, further to this , error code p0340 indicated a failed cam position sensor, i found this was disconnected, i reconnected the sensor thinking that all would be fine, but the engine now does not start, and all error codes are clear from the ecu and have not reappeared.

I am thinking that pehaps the cam belt was changed and has jumped, or installed in the wrong position, and in order to get the engine to run the previous owner disconnected the sensor and accidentally broke the oil control valve when fault finding . the question is will the engine run if the cam sensor was disconnected? as this advances the position of the timing! (maybe) please help. tomorrow i will be taking the cam belt off, in the hope that it is in the wrong position. i will need to know how to identify the exact position for both crankshaft and camshaft positions.

is the crankshaft pulley keyed? i ask because on the manual i have found (thanks for leaving links for this) it indiates to line-up the crankshaft pulley with the marking on engine.

Thanks in advance.

ColinBarber · February 21, 2015

I would imagine the engine would not start if the cam sensor was disconnected. Also the timing belt would have to slip quite a bit for the engine not to at least try and start, normally one tooth out and it will start but just run poorly or throw up a VVTi error.

Yes the crankshaft pulley is keyed and there are timing marks on it and the cams. You should be able to check this by just removing the top part of the belt cover so shouldn't take too long. I've attached the belt removal/replace procedures which so the timing markings.

m_em_0020.pdf

m_em_0026.pdf

mafp · February 21, 2015

thanks for the reply and links, i will be looking at the camshaft and crankshaft relative position. and you think that the engine would still start and run with the belt out of position, although not out enough to make interference between pistons/valves, but out sufficiently to spark with the valve just off their seats. just a thought.

although, when i bought the vehicle the sensor was disconnected and the engine would start, after connecting the diagnostics to read the codes that had the MIL light on; i discovered the camshaft sensor was causing the error, upon investigating, i discovered that it was disconnected, after connecting the sensor back the engine has not started again.