frankd

11 months ago, my 97 Taurus (Vulcan motor) had it's cam position sensor fall apart, so I changed it, and everything has been fine, until tonight. Once again the "Service Engine Soon" light came on about 30 seconds after I started it. I went to AutoZone and they found that the cam position sensor has failed again.

I bought the first one from Murray's. Does anybody'd sensors last longer than these or did I just get one that was worse than usual??

dmcomputerguy

Like you, I replaced mine twice. The first time, it tore up the entire insides and I had to replace the entire assembly. That sensor went out fairly soon, unfortunately.

I opened it up and all that was wrong is that the magnet fell out of the sensor. The second time, I glued the magnet back in with JB Weld. So far, it has held up okay.

The reason that the first one caused so much damage is that the magnet and some other parts fell out and got wedged between the moving parts.

frankd

When I opened mine up, I too found that the magnet had fallen out of the sensor, and had done no additional damage. However, I didn't trust glue or epoxy to grip to the plastic securely. I went up to Car-Quest and looked at their sensor. It had the magnet completely encapsulated with plastic, not just glued in like the previous sensor. It cost more from Car-Quest, but it a much better unit. I was leaving on a trip when the magnet fell out, and I've got about 5,000 miles on the second replacement.