BriankMurphy

Check Engine light came back on after receiving a p00012 code. Replaced the camshaft position sensor and 1 hour later the light came back on.

2004 Scion XB Auto Transmission.

any help with this?

jbod

whats your mileage? i'm asking, because i have an 04, and wondering how common this is! i'm not totally sure, but i know reading this forum i have seen these kinds of threads, and if i'm not wrong i thought i read someone saying they got this code, and replaced the sensor, but that it was actually something else, and not the sensor, but the timing gear or something? i'm probably not making sense cause it's hard to remember.


is it running alright? my 99 corolla was the biggest pain in the a s s with the check engine light. i left mine on for years, and there was more than one reason it was on. it probably would have cost me over $2000 to have all the things replaced professionally. right before i sold it my best friend, and i fixed what we could, and got the light off just so i wouldn't sway any potential buyers. i did warn them that the light came on all the time, but it's never left me on the side of the road, and never caused the car to act up at all. not saying it never will when the light is on, but what was wrong with my corolla wasn't. so thats the only bad thing i will say about toyotas check engine comes on WAY too much. usually though it's nothing that will cause you to break down from my experience, and others i know.


years ago when i first got my corolla i needed the water pump replaced. i don't remember if it was the water pump or alternator they both went within a month of each other not long after i got the car. anyway the mechanic saw the check engine light on. he took it upon himself to plug in the obd scanner to tell me what was wrong. he tried making out like he was a nice guy by not chargine me to hook it up, and he told me it was gonna be almost $1000 bucks just to fix it. i told him no thanks i don't have that kinda money right now since i just paid over $500 bucks to have the other thing fixed. he almost wouldn't let me leave his garage, and i almost had to start getting loud, and defensive with him. he told me i would be left on the side of the road if i didn't fix it. i told him okay i have aaa and i'll have them tow it back have a nice day. i left, and the light stayed on until the week before i got rid of it, and we fixed it ourselves. that was about 60k miles, and almost 4 years later.

Reactor

Bad sensor usually sets P0340 code. The P0012 is usually the cam actuator or oil supply problem.

jbod

eh that's the thing everyone posts about costing over $1200 dollars right?

Reactor

Yes but that's on the higher end and including labor.

jbod

i remember reading it's very common particularly in the 05/06 models, but i guess it's happened with the 04's also.

Reactor

Less common on 06 and very common on earlier models. There was a factory TSB regarding P0012 and they were replacing them under warranty. There have to be like 20 threads on this already.

jbod

i've ran into several of these threads on it while i was researching the xb before i bought it. my observations seemed to be that it was more common than not for them to fail at lower mileage. i saw a couple higher, but what i remember it was on average as low as 20k miles to 50k miles.


speaking of tsb i remember reading on here a while ago someone advising someone else to take it to the dealer, and they will replace it with no charge, because of the tsb. that post was from years ago though.

Reactor

TSB is not a recall so dealer will not do it for free unless the car is under the 5 years/60K miles warranty. Some people purchased extended warranty when they bought the car so it's possible that it was still covered.

Kevlar

I got the dreaded P0012 code myself last Saturday.
I reset the code and it's been 6 day and still the code hasn't thrown again.
You can try resetting it and hope it never returns. Like me
I hear that code can be thrown by grit in the oil.
I also heard one comment by a person that deals allot with these cars and he sees it all the time. He then resets them and they almost never come back.
It's all talk talk though.
I see more comments of people experiences with the
p0012 ending up with having to get it fixed.
this is the Toyota TSB
http://tijil.org/Scion_TSBs/eg00307.pdf

Kevlar

Sorry for my first comment. I see your past the point of resetting the code. You've changed out the censor.
I don't have a clue how much this would cost to get fix by the dealer.
This does sound like a job for the dealer.

Let us know how it goes.
Good luck

jbod

how about you kevlar? you got on 04 also? looks like i better try to keep my credit card balance low. might need it for this job. this is the achilles heel of toyotas. check engine light. not saying ford taurus is any better when it comes to the light! it's worse! same with many other cars.

BlueSleeper

If you read the tsb for P0012 code. Scion Xb for 05 and 06. They require to reflash your ecu first to update it. If the car continues to throw the code. The technician is instructed to replace the timing pulley.

Im currently have this problem and taking it to the dealer to fix it.

What I have noticed on alot of these threads for this code. Is most people are not aware of the tsb that addresses the issue. and they waste tons of money on the wrong parts.

jbod

how come there isn't a tsb for the 04? why isn't it included in that? when i've searched the code which i did today cause i had too much time on my hands i didn't see many issues with the 04. there was a few, but 05 seemed to be a lot of them. mine was built in 9/03 so mine was one of the first ones. june 03 was when the first ones were built right?

Kevlar

My car is a 05. I don't think it fallows under the tsb vin #. close but I don't think so.
It's been one week and the light hasn't come back. I hope it stays this way.
How soon does other cars react to resetting the code?
Has any one out there heard of resetting the code and it never returning?
Or is it a matter of time to for it to return.
I just got my first smog check appointment coming up soon. I would hate to fail it.
THE DREADED P0012.

Kevlar

I have 130,000 miles on my engine. It still runs perfect.
I hear that throughing the P0012 code and having a bad camshaft timing gear assembly that it would mess up your idle and may make your engine run poorly.
Are you guys experiencing any of these symptoms or others?
How urgent is it to get fixed?
What kind of quotes have some of you guys seen to get this fixed?

Kevlar

here is a great write up by mikochu.
ECU Reset (Without Disconnecting Battery)
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/general-tech-diy-1821/ecu-reset-without-disconnecting-battery-12220/

jbod

i can tell you this. bought my 99 corolla in july 2007 for $4500 bucks. it had i think 122k miles on it. had 186k when i sold it last month. within a few thousand miles i had that light come on the check engine. pretty sure that was for the o2 sensors. the guy who i posted about above wanted $800 bucks parts, and labor, and i told him to go pound salt. i don't know why it would cost that much. probably because they charge 5 hours to do a 1 hour job. i worked for someone else in the service industry for years doing garage doors. i know how it is first hand. i have my own business now on the side, but the most i will round off is a half hour. not by hours. i also suspect if a part is $140 bucks say they want to charge $280 for the part. i hate most mechanics i've dealt with. not that they aren't good, but they rip you off royally. not all of them, but more than less they do.


anyway my check engine light was on until about a week before i sold the car which was a month ago. my buddy, and i replaced the o2 sensors, and had it done in less than an hour. just to so potential buyers wouldn't be swayed. it never gave me any problems or cut my gas mileage anything noticeable. i also had to replace the evap sensor or something to get it off. i did replace the maf less than a year after i got it, and did it myself. only took 10 minutes. the only thing bad about keeping the check engine light on, and not fixing it is wondering if there is also another code on that will cause more problems than the initial one, and you won't know it unless you scan it monthly. i hear a bad crankshaft position sensor will trigger it, and mine went bad on the corolla. it wouldn't start one morning in my backyard.


so i rode with the o2 sensors bad for at least 50k miles. actually 60k when i think about it. the evap one was bad for a while too. some people say this code on the xb is bad, and others say it's not too serious, and that you should get it fixed, but it's okay to hold off if you don't have the funds to do it right now. cars are weird now though. i hear of bad o2 sensors causing cars to not even run these days. yet mine on the corolla was bad for all that time, and if the light wasn't on i wouldn't have known. if that light was taken out of the dash i wouldn't have known it was bad. never had a break down with a check engine light. my moms taurus it's been on for years, and it's never caused a break down. many other things have, but not whatever is setting off the code.


so i don't know how bad it is to not fix it. those lights are the biggest blunders. the fact they even have check engine rather than check emissions i don't get. not that everything is emissions related, but nothing to decipher the two. it was all a conspiracy to get people thinking there engine was blowing, and to take it in right away. i've seen cars with bad rods, ticking valves, and real engine problems, and the light wasn't even on. then i've seen the most ridiculous problems, and the light was on. so i'm sure others can chime in who have had that code with their xb's, and they can say if they've ever broke down because of it.


are you noticing anything different? like the rough idle or running poorly?

Kevlar

My car is running great even though it through the code.
Are others seeing symptoms with the code?

Ford_Falcon

I got an '04 as well.
It just ticked over the 200K mark about a month ago. For the most part, the car is running good. I'm getting the Three Amigo's (Check engine, TRAC, VSC). It's been using more oil lately, so I will be replacing the valve stem seals in the next week, and probably piston rings as well. The three amigos have been coming and going lately. I can't quite make out what's going on either.