Where can I buy the most reliable aftermarket camshaft position sensor?

[dearchristopher]

As the title says, where have you bought an aftermarket Camshaft Position Sensor that didn't die within a month or two?

Story time...

I bought my LJ with 152k miles in March of this year, and the previous owner had replaced the CPS with an O'Reilly special shortly before I bought the jeep. I had a few intermittent codes from that one, and eventually about a month ago it was intermittent signal enough to throw the jeep into limp mode. I took this opportunity to put in a Crown OPDA, and since I had a junky O'Reilly CPS, I just left the Crown CPS in there. Even Crown apparently suggests to change it and that it's a piece of junk. Fast forward a month later to today, I got my first intermittent CPS code again. (Way faster fail rate than I expected)

I read up that the new stock official Mopar CPS is junk, and that the best Mopar is the one that you had from factory, or a new old stock part. I heard from a technician at Wranglerfix that NAPA sells decent CPS & CKS sensors.

Anyone have any experience here? I know I have a good OPDA as I just replaced it. I just didn't expect the CPS to fail THAT fast. I also didn't have to do any camshaft/crankshaft relearn procedure, the jeep ran great as soon as I buttoned it all back up. I thought I would at the worst-case get 6 months out of this one.

 

[dearchristopher]

Here’s a pic of all my shiny new DTCs.

 

[Link]

I suspect your PCM is failing. You mentioned talking to WranglerFix? Did you replace it already?

I’d try the Echlin branded parts from Napa even if you have to order it. I took out my old Crankshaft position sensor and replaced it with a Napa one. Ran fine for a year. I figured that was a good test so put the OEM one back in and have the Napa one in the Jeep as a spare.

 

[macleanflood]

No specific experience with cam...but on my 97 crank I've had better luck with Standard Motor Products and Napa Echlin.

O2 sensors - I tried a new NGK and Walker...both failed quickly but the 15 year old NGK I took from a 2000 TJ I'm parting out is flawless. Point of this tale is I might have caused this issue because I'm using a Magnaflow high flow 2.5" cat and I may have put the bung too close and it's too hot. So make sure something isn't mechanically interfering with your cam sensor.

-Mac

 

[dearchristopher]

I suspect your PCM is failing. You mentioned talking to WranglerFix? Did you replace it already?

I’d try the Echlin branded parts from Napa even if you have to order it. I took out my old Crankshaft position sensor and replaced it with a Napa one. Ran fine for a year. I figured that was a good test so put the OEM one back in and have the Napa one in the Jeep as a spare.

Yeah I have a wranglerfix pcm already, thats part of why I reached out to them. I hate asking them random unrelated questions, but they are always so helpful. Started out with walking through PCM reset and landed on Echlin brand from NAPA, actually. Might have to do that. My crankshaft sensor seems to read fine, so I'm on the fence about replacing them in parity or not

No specific experience with cam...but on my 97 crank I've had better luck with Standard Motor Products and Napa Echlin.

O2 sensors - I tried a new NGK and Walker...both failed quickly but the 15 year old NGK I took from a 2000 TJ I'm parting out is flawless. Point of this tale is I might have caused this issue because I'm using a Magnaflow high flow 2.5" cat and I may have put the bung too close and it's too hot. So make sure something isn't mechanically interfering with your cam sensor.

-Mac

my cats are stock and the exhaust system is stock except for a weld in replacement muffler when the other had a partial leak. The O2s are new, and I believe they are Bosch. Wranglerfix tech told me he'd seen issues with Bosch, so I can't really rule those out either even though I do know my current CPS is a reported weak link even by Crown's standards.

 

[Link]

Good you have a new PCM so that question has been answered. So we can almost certainly rule that out. I guess it’s possible you have a bad one but I’d say it’s pretty unlikely.

Use NTK O2 sensors.

I don’t think I would replace the crankshaft sensor yet. One thing at a time.

 

[Link]

Also check the wiring closely for issues.

 

[dearchristopher]

Good you have a new PCM so that question has been answered. So we can almost certainly rule that out. I guess it’s possible you have a bad one but I’d say it’s pretty unlikely.

Use NTK O2 sensors.

I don’t think I would replace the crankshaft sensor yet. One thing at a time.

Looks like i can get new NTKs from the autozone down the road for around $45 a piece. I've seen others say Bosch are trouble with the 4.0, but I would be a little surprised if that were what is causing my issue. The wear on my factory OPDA wasn't horrible, but it definitely had wear

Also check the wiring closely for issues.

i did inspect the harness for the OPDA when I was replacing it, and it looked ok as far as i traced it.

 

[dearchristopher]

Looks like i can get new NTKs from the autozone down the road for around $45 a piece. I've seen others say Bosch are trouble with the 4.0, but I would be a little surprised if that were what is causing my issue. The wear on my factory OPDA wasn't horrible, but it definitely had wear

i did inspect the harness for the OPDA when I was replacing it, and it looked ok as far as i traced it.

I take that back, this thread is a wealth of info

 

[Bigfoot-NM]

To answer the original question…..Napa Echlin brand is the best aftermarket camshaft position sensor for the 05/06 models

 

[JKP]

Bosch O2s, plugs don't play well with the 4.0.

Reg plugs, double platinum, iridium are good. No single platinum plugs with the coil rail.

Also check that the cat to manifold bolts are tight. A leak there can cause the slow response codes.

 

[dearchristopher]

Bosch O2s, plugs don't play well with the 4.0.

Reg plugs, double platinum, iridium are good. No single platinum plugs with the coil rail.

Also check that the cat to manifold bolts are tight. A leak there can cause the slow response codes.

The most damning code to me seems to be the intermitten CPS circuit code. I did some reading on the slow response and that seemed like a secondary code to some other primary issue.

I do know the o2's are Bosch and still look brand new, so my assumption is they went on around the time the last owner had the CPS codes. He only changed the CPS and left the factory OPDA. Totally possible he was chasing his tail with the O2s and cheapo CPS at the same time?

 

[JKP]

P0344 is either a bad sensor, or bad wiring.

 

[Willys LJ]

I replaced my OPDA last year. The original cam sensor was frozen stuck into the old OPDA housing and I ended up accidentally breaking it trying to get it out. So, I just used the sensor that came with the new Crown OPDA and so far, no issues with it so far.

 

[dearchristopher]

P0344 is either a bad sensor, or bad wiring.

I went ahead and ordered a new Napa sensor. I’ll double check the wiring while I’m at it

 

[Strizzo]

I have a standard motor products from oreillys, initially it worked for a day before throwing codes again. After some additional research here, I dug in more and found that the new sensor didn’t sit all the way into the opda

I ended up filing down the brass bushing where the bolt holds it in and got it inserted into the opda at the same clearance as the oem sensor. It’s worked perfect since.

 

[sab]

After researching cam/crank sync in the two PCMs used in the TJs, starting the cam/crank sync thread, and seeing forum members work through their issues, I'm of firm belief that most of the time, a sync (JTEC+) or relearn (NGC) will "fix" a "broken" aftermarket sensor. The problem is that manufacturing tolerances are looser with aftermarket sensors, and they need to be adjusted more than the original Mopar sensors. And those tolerances don't necessarily manifest immediately because a rotating engine that accelerating and decelerating is a complex animal. Those signals move around with respect to each other and may be fine most of the time, but that one particular set of conditions can trigger the code. That's why the sensors seem to work and then "fail."

There is a reason the engineers created those functions in the PCM. They expected sensors to need adjustment in order to work. Try a sync or relearn, and you might be surprised...

 

[dearchristopher]

After researching cam/crank sync in the two PCMs used in the TJs, starting the cam/crank sync thread, and seeing forum members work through their issues, I'm of firm belief that most of the time, a sync (JTEC+) or relearn (NGC) will "fix" a "broken" aftermarket sensor. The problem is that manufacturing tolerances are looser with aftermarket sensors, and they need to be adjusted more than the original Mopar sensors. And those tolerances don't necessarily manifest immediately because a rotating engine that accelerating and decelerating is a complex animal. Those signals move around with respect to each other and may be fine most of the time, but that one particular set of conditions can trigger the code. That's why the sensors seem to work and then "fail."

There is a reason the engineers created those functions in the PCM. They expected sensors to need adjustment in order to work. Try a sync or relearn, and you might be surprised...

I already bought the Napa branded one, I’ll probably install it and still do a learn procedure. Crown auto themselves say to keep the mopar CPS instead of their sensor, so I’ll go with the “good” brand and take your advice

 

[dearchristopher]

I got the NAPA part installed today, and did a voltage drain by removing positive and negative from battery and connecting them together for about half an hour.

We will see how well this works. The wiring looks fine, as far back as I checked it. Started back up great, everything looks good on monitor through a scanner.

Something I find interesting, all three of the sensors look identical. NAPA, Crown Auto, and the Echilin part. In my pics the Echilin is on left, Crown in middle, Oreilly on right. For orientation, the Oreilly part has a QR code on it.

I won’t be surprised if the code comes back. I’m thinking the sensor may not have been my issue, and I need to clock the OPDA for cam & crank sync, then do a relearn when they are near 0°. Time will tell. My crown OPDA is definitely not clocked to the same position as my factory one, though I got it close as I could.

We will see!

 

[macleanflood]

Yup all made in the same factory in China...if you're lucky the Napa buyers paid more for quality binning.

I think you're correct on tweaking the OPDA.

-Mac