03 Murano MIL - P0340 OBD-II code

[Wifes03Murano]

Hello to all.I am a new member here, bought my 03 SL brand new. Not too many problems to report, new transmission and front diff around 25-30K, under warranty. Just had the dealership do the CVT fluid change for the first time at 103K.Anyways, the reason I'm posting is I'm stumped. My car now has 111K mi on it. I have the shop maintenence manual on CD for this car. Got the code from an OBD-II scanner borrowed from Advance Auto parts. Code was P0340 - camshaft position sensor, bank A. So I consulted the manual, went through the 12 or so steps, and finding nothing else, replaced the sensor with one bought from Advance (my own fault). Car still has MIL lit up. It cleared at the parts store, but came back on within 1 mile. As before the replacement sensor, when the light comes on, the car is going uphill, between 30-40mph, under normal loading, and it will studder violently, lose power, but won't shut off completely. The MIL will stay on until cleared with a code scanner.

A little history: had the crank position sensor light up the MIL a few months ago. When I took it out, tested it with an ohm-meter, it was OK, so I put it back in, took the car back to advance, and cleared the code. It never came back on, so I figured I'd saved myself $300+ bucks not taking to the dealership.

Did I do more harm than good by putting a non-OEM sensor in? Should I also be replacing the crank pos. sensor?\

Thanks in advance for your help...Eric

[jwerty1]

I'm not sure if it's true with murano cam sensors, but some crank/cam sensors will leak oil back through into the connector

remove the connectors and see if they are oil soaked, if they are spray them out with brake clean and replace the corresponding sensors, i wouldn't suggest aftermarket sensors, of course I do work for a dealership, but that's what i trust

the crank sensor isn't exposed to oil, but we do see those every now and then

[Wifes03Murano]

hey jwerty1, thanks for the info. I'll check it out. as a general rule, I shoot dielectric grease into all the connectors I remove. you don't see a problem with that, do you?

As an update, the wife took the car to work this morning, and it shuddered more violently than with the original OEM unit. She had business within 5 miles of the dealer, so I had her go pick up a new cam sensor from them. After installing it, and cleaning the excess grease I shot into the connector, I took it for a good, hard drive. No issues. I'm taking it for a drive to my work tomorrow to really test it out. I am going to assume it is fixed.

A few comments:1) It wasn't too much more expensive than the non-OEM ($100 vs $75)2) At the dealer, had to provide my VIN number to identify the correct part. Seems that there were 2 possible cam sensors for the front in '03. Advance nor anyone else asked about this.3) The more I thought about it, shooting dielectric grease into the connector may be not such a good idea. The sensor's output to the computer averages between 1 - 4 VDC, and I think the grease was providing some level of insulation, preventing the sensor from making contact.4) I suspect that the cause of the failure was oil intrusion into the original sensor, maybe through a bad internal seal, or possibly from a crankcase breather that resides directly above this connector.

I will post after the weekend if my problem is solved.
Modified by Wifes03Murano at 7:24 PM 3/3/2010

[Wifes03Murano]

Well, the new sensor from the dealer did it. I declare my wife's car fixed.