Mitsubishi Repair: negative battery cable, negative battery cable, distributer cap


Question
QUESTION: how do i change a negative battery cable?
how do i change the cam position sensor?
how do i reset the "check engine soon" light?

ANSWER: Ederlyn:How old is your car? If it was built before 2000, the cam position sensor is in the distributor cap, so replacing that would then change the sensor. You should go to a parts store and buy yourself a repair manual for your car, it would help walk you though all of this and more. Well worth the money for one, they cost around $20.00. A tune up might in order too. So stark plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor. As for the negative battery cable, you unhook both cables, first the neg and then the other one. Then get a new cable, if you are going to replace the neg cable just as well do the other one too. Then you would have two new cables on the battery. Just follow the cables down to where they took up to, do first one cable and then the other. Just unhook the old cable put in the new one, then go to the other side, unhook the old cable and hook up the new. As for the check engine light, you should be able to fix that while doing the cables, as the way to reset the computer is to unhook the neg cable for like 5 minutes and then rehook it up. If that does not work got an AutoZone close by they would be able to clear the computer for you. Hope this helps and God bless: Linda

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QUESTION: sorry - i forgot to mention what type of car i had!!  it's a 2003 mitsubishi galant.  the check engine light went on so i took it in for a diagnostic test.  they said i needed to replace the negative battery cable and the cam position sensor thing.  so i just bought the parts and figured it should be easy to install.  if it's not rocket science - i can do it =)  although i don't know much about cars....where's the distributer cap?

Answer
Ederlyn: Ok, well your car is new enough that it does not have a distributor cap. So in your car it is mounted on the crankshift its self. You might have to get a shop to change this for you. As it does not sound like an easy place to get to and you said you don't know much about cars. Not that I am saying you can not do this yourself, it might just be a bigger job than you think. Do you have tools, a garage to work in, jack stands to put the car up on, as you will have to be under the car to get at that cam position sensor. And look, if you had a car old enough to have a distributor cap and you don't know where it would be. I would say my friend, you need to take your car into a shop and let them fix this for you. As I think your car is to new to get a repair manual for it even. It is a rocket science. If you mess up the wrong thing, it could cost an arm and a leg to fix it right. Why not save yourself a headache and let a shop fix this for you. As your car is a new one and they are getting harder to work on. Hope this helps and God bless: Linda