My wife took our 98, S70 to the dealer for an oil change and diagnostics checks. After doing both, the dealer claims the Cam Position Sensor died coincidentally and the car will no longer start. The dealer also claimed they can't damage the Cam Position Sensor, it died by itself. The car has been serviced regularly by the same dealer and was running fine when she took it in. Is this dealer truethful or are they trying to rip us off?

 

They are known to go at a momments notice.

I have seen it before.

 

The question is whether the dealer's statement that "they can't make the cam position sensor go bad" a true statement. I'm guessing that since the sensor is an electronic part that it is possible?

 

The only way they could have made it bad is to have ripped the wires out of it or short the entire system out.

 

Please forgive me for asking a newbie question.. what does "short the entire system out" mean? I know the dealer claimed to have checked the battery cable before the sensor went dead. Thanks so much for your replies.

 

It means they would have had to give the car like 20 Volts or more or short the battery.

 

The car I bought a few months ago has a new cam sensor on it. I took it off and looked at it (don't ask), and I didn't see anything that looked like it would wear out. What wears out, or goes bad?
Cranky

 

this is very interesting because I took the car to another mechanic to find out the problem the dealer caused. He first found the battery to be completely dead. replacing the battery and the cam position sensor got the car running again. the dealer claims they didn't know the battery was dead.

Is it possible to pin point that the cam position sensor is the dead when the battery is also dead? wouldn't they have to replace the battery first to find out, or can they just use a booster?

 

CRANKY the electrical parts go bad inside the sensor.

Karldanker they might have used a jumper or a battery charger and then it finished dying afterwards.