camshaft adjustor

[megantbs]

2001 1.8 turbo
I took my car to vw for a diagnosis for a code saying: crankshaft/camshaft position sensor out of alignment. What they found was that the camshaft adjustor, which is different from the sensor, has nothing plugged into it. We looked everywhere for a loose wire, with no luck. So my question is, where would the wire lead to if it were connected to the camshaft adjustor? I looked in the bentley with no luck, so I am hoping that someone with the same car can just look under the hood, and follow the wire from the cam adjustor to see where it would be coming out of. They want to charge me $1500 to put in a new engine wiring harness, so your help would be greatly appreciated.
I attached some pics of the sensor. It is the white piece on the right side of the engine with nothing coming out of it, and it is right in the middle of the full engine shot. I am also wondering why that metal vacuum line is blocking the spot to plug it in. It is bolted down there! and yes, some things might be out of place because my husband was working on locating wire at this point.

[SilverSportNOLA]

Just took some pictures of my AWV engine .... will put them up in a few minutes, need to upload them to photobucket.

Help us out .... go check in your spare tire compartment and let us know which engine is on the build tag. The APH did not come with Variable Valve Timing and the AWV did ... 2001 model year came with both engines.

Okay .... here is the picture ... sorry not really great, took it after dark and it is the only one that is not blurry. The wire goes into the harness that goes also to the rear temp sensor (not the black or green topped one we talk about a lot here). Your engine looks different from mine with the hose pipes coming out of the valve cover .... and it looks like non oem rubber pipes there.

[megantbs]

thanks for the pic and info! It looks alot different from ours, but we are going to look and see where our rear temp sensor line is and follow it and hopefully we will have more luck that way. I'll post what I find=) thanks again!

[SilverSportNOLA]

I am almost wondering if the car has the original engine in it. Have you owned it since new or at least for a while without the problem?

[megantbs]

I have had 1t for 13 months. I had to replace the water pump and we put on a new belt at the same time. It has the vw cover on it. Another wierd thing is that the check engine light only came on since we put in the timing belt, about 8 months ago, but we have never had anything plugged into the camshaft sensor ever since we bought it. the timing belt is on there perfect. I am just wondering if that really is the reason for the light, or if they just saw a plug without anything in it and calle that the problem. also, I hear there were 2 versions of the 1.8 turbo in 2001? that could be why they look different? - Megan

[hako]

Here's the wiring diagram - hope its readable!

[megantbs]

well, I know my car has 2 cam sensors, 1 of which is located under the cam cover and is easily accessible. that one is plugged in securely. Is the other one really hard to get to on the 1.8L? If the cam pos. sensor was the problem, would It almost start up when I turn it over and then die? it starts after a couple times, but when it is idling when I fist start it, it sounds like its missing, and might die, but it never does?

Also, I don't have a cam adjustor. Just openened up the dash, and found the location where the wire should be, but instead of a wire there is a green plug, in fact there are 3 green plugs in my engine control module. It looks like vw never put 1 in. also, I am thinking that if it is not plugged in at all, it could not be throwing the code? so it has to be a sensor?

Also, again, how do you test the cam sensor? Thanks

[SilverSportNOLA]

Megan .... please open your hatch and open the spare tire compartment and let us know what engine code is on the options sticker in the spare tire compartment.

[megantbs]

I have an awv. I have had to replace all coil packs in the last 2 weeks. I have replaced the cam sensor. I still have the code(p1340). What does the cam adjuster do, and could it cause my coil packs to die out? or could this code be being caused by something else?
The code came on after we changed the timing belt/water pump. Tested at dealership and timing belt aligned perfectly.