What is a cam positioning sensor?
Background – please skip over the parts you know already In your car, pistons go up and down driving the crankshaft, making it turn continuously. In order to control the distribution of fuel and air, valves are opened and closed above the pistons. The valves are operated using cams, which are egg-shaped things that rotate on a shaft (the surface of the “egg” pushes on the valve to open it – the valve closes because it’s got a spring). That shaft (the one with the “eggs”) is called the camshaft. It’s very important to maintain the phase (the relative position) between the crankshaft and the camshaft, because if you don’t you can get the valves opening too late, when the piston is at the top (i.e.the valves hit the top of the piston). This can destroy the engine. The cam positioning sensor is a sensor that monitors the angular position of the camshaft (the amount the camshaft has turned) relative to the angular position of the crankshaft. Sometimes cars are equipped with a mechanical dev
