QuestionQUESTION: I have no knowledge when it comes to vehicles I tried the ignition trick and have 6 sets of numbers that come up p1684, 0340, 0123, 0113, 1489, 0300, done. What do they mean? Please help!!
ANSWER: Hi Candace,
The most likely primary cause of the no start is 0340 which says that there is no signal coming from the camshaft position sensor which is responsible for distributing the spark and the fuel injection pulses appropriately. So that would be the first thing to replace. It is located on the front of the engine and is easy to replace. You didn't tell me the year nor the engine size (L) so I can't be too specific about all these.
The 0113 is about the inlet air temp sensor signal being wrong and the 0223 about the throttle position sensor signal being wrong. Those might be due to a common wire of the two being disconnected or grounded. They will impact the engine's running as well but may not prevent it from starting.
The 0300 is generic in saying that the engine is missing on multiple cylinders, and that could be due to the former problems I listed and might go away with those getting fixed.
The 1489 is about the circuit for running the cooling fan on high speed. It might be a fuse that needs to be replaced but I can't tell you which without knowing the year of the vehicle.
the 1684 says the battery has been recently disconnected which is not an issue unless to your knowledge it has not been.
So let me know of anything about the history of the situation as it is unusual to have so many codes at once, and work on the first three codes I discussed to begin.
Roland
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: I'm sorry it's a 1999 3.2L you have been so helpful! I'm so grateful I will get a camshaft sensor today where is that located on engine?
AnswerHi Candace,
Unfortunately I need to modify my suggestion that replacing the camshaft position sensor is "easy". I should have known which engine you had before making the statement. I imagined a 2.7L engine rather than your 3.2L. The sensor removal requires that the upper intake manifold be removed and that is about a 10-step procedure in each direction to do and you would want to have the pages that describe that.
Given that effort it might be wise first to remove the electrical connector from the sensor which can be done easily and measure the continuity/voltage on the wires that supply the sensor on the grounds that the sensor could be alright and rather the wiring is the issue. Then if that shows otherwise you would remove the manifold and then that gives you the access to the sensor which apparently according to the manual gets in the way of changing the sensor. Basically if you look at the front of the engine on left side is where the sensor is, hidden below the intake manifold and attached by screws to the front cover of the engine behind which is the timing belt and camshaft sprockets which the belt rotates. The sensor is inserted in a hole in that cover so that its tip is in contact with the camshaft sprocket which it "looks" at in order to tell which cylinder is needing to have it spark/injector activated.
So unless you are planning to do the electrical testing and if necessary the intake manifold removing yourself I would not go into the details of those activities. Let me know your skill level and inclination.
Again, was there a 'history' as to what happened before you arrived at this point? Given the multiple electrical fault codes, that may give a clue as to how it is now and what might be another explanation of what went wrong and why.
Thanks for the rating. If you would care to do it again for this answer and consider giving a "yes" to a nomination of me for "volunteer of the month" I would be appreciative.
Roland
