service engine soon light on and having a hard time starting. any suggestions?

02TRUBLUGT · 04-02-2009

My service engine soon light is on and im having a ahrd time starting it on the first crank. I turn the key and it cranks to about 1000 - 1500 rpms and then slowly bogs down, but fires right up the second time. sometimes if I hit the gas right after I crank it, fires up. It sounds to me like either its fuel starved. I dunno, any advice?

ShelbyGirl88 · 04-03-2009

thats what was happening with mine when i had my CAI without the proper tune! i think it deals with the amount of air you have going in.

racin366 · 04-03-2009

First thing, check the codes, that'll give you a place to start, but you could have a spark, fuel, or sensor problem like the iac. Maybe even vacuum leak, start by checking the plugs and codes and go from there.

02TRUBLUGT · 04-03-2009

So I got the code pulled. It came up P0340 - camshaft position sensor a - bank 1 circuit malfunction. The place I bought the car from said that is the exact part they changed to get rid of the engine light the first time. I checked and it does look brand new. Anybody ever hear of this before and if so, how did you fix it? Thanks guys

mell0 · 04-03-2009

i do recall seeing a thread about the same check engine light. the problem was actually a bad alternator! the cams sensors rarely go bad on our cars and even if you test the alternator it might still read good. do a quick search. the thread is only probably a week or two old.

02TRUBLUGT · 04-03-2009

Yeah I saw that thread. But I'm not sure about that. Why would the alternator have anything to do with the camshaft position sensor? I don't know, I'm not the most educated on it, but it just doesnt seem right.

02TRUBLUGT · 04-03-2009

Sorry just read a couple more threads about the same thing and found out why it could be the alternator. Thanks and I'll report back and let you know if it fixs it.

02TRUBLUGT · 04-10-2009

just wanted to update everybody who helped me out with this one. i took the car back to the dealer with the info i found on here and they looked into it and ended up changing the alternator like i suggested and it worked. Thank God! No more check engine light! and it didnt cost me a dime! Thanks again guys!

**tripleblack** · 04-10-2009

Another case of the alternator masquerading as a cam sensor!

Good one.

Thanks for posting back with the solution.