If a rat eats your DS camshaft position sensor harness, you don’t need to remove your intake plenum.

A rat ate only the wires to my driver-side bank camshaft position sensor. The truck still drove normally, but I had a check engine light come on and the OBD2 code P0348. I assume the engine defaults to run off the other bank’s sensor (with a timing-chain driven engine, the position of each cam should be relative), or you just get worse mileage, because I really could not tell a difference in how it drove. I had both a check-engine and “trac off” light on the dash. Why Toyota confuses the issue by making the trac-off light come on is unknown to me, but apparently this is the case with many engine fault codes.

This sensor is located right under the intake plenum so is very hard to access.





FYI, if you are careful, and disconnect all the sensors on the drivers side, you can pull the harness out from under the intake plenum (manifold) without having to remove the manifold. All the videos I saw to solve this problem showed disassembly of the entire manifold, throttle etc. This is unnecessary.

1- Disconnect battery and remove all connections that are included in the bundle that has the cam sensor wiring in it. These include sensors on the front face of the engine and a couple on top and on the side. Take your time and it will be obvious what has to happen.

2 - remove both plenum (intake manifold) driver-side black-painted steel supports

3 - de-clip all wire holding straps and hose holders. This includes the steel plate under the plenum with two wire straps on it (held with a single 10mm bolt)

4 - pull harness out carefully from under the intake plenum

5 - butt-splice a new connector onto the existing wires (I bought mine off Amazon - wire colours were different, but connector worked).

6 - reverse process.

7- clear code with OBD2 device (is a permanent code, so must be manually cleared. Will not self clear)

Yes, it is a giant hassle, and requires some patience and know-how, but not as big a job as removing the plenum, in my opinion.

job took about 1 hour.

Photo below shows the harness pulled out prior to butt splicing.




Hope this helps someone else.

 

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0D4YJY3DH?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

I used this connector. Came with heat-shrink butt splices which worked very nicely.

For my truck, this is how this specific connector was wired:

OEM red wire to aftermarket red wire
OEM greenish-yellow wire to aftermarket yellow wire
OEM greenish-blue wire to aftermarket black wire

I have no idea if this is standardized across all Tacomas so check yours carefully for the location of the colours.

 

We can predict seasons by P0348 code.
I would solder wires rather using butt connectors

 

Same rat ate mine and it ran but got 3 miles per gallon over 200 miles. Great mechanic figured it out in Santa Crus, Rusty at "https://www.yelp.com/biz/rustys-automotive-bellflower" figured it out. If you need honest work, it's the place to go around here.

 

I work as an electrician, with a good portion of my work on marine Diesel engine controls. I assure you a properly installed butt-splice will outlive a soldered joint most days of the week. Both are OK to use, but good butt splices are more resistant to vibration than solder when it comes to wire-to-wire connections as they don’t form a section where the solder joint transitions to raw wire. It is at this interface where solder connections often fail due to cracking.

 

And get the Honda Rodent tape for wrapping it all up
https://www.collegehillshonda.com/p...2ptLMu689dHRBe6IyllF-ghU-9ilLKDSGpTJXvPgR4LPt

 

I recently got P0348'd by a rat, this little writeup was very helpful. So thankful to not have to futz with the plenum (or give the dealership money). Thank you!

I ordered `90980-12353` from Toyota Parts Deal. Their imagery shows the connector plus a pigtail. Unfortunately, when it arrived, no wires, just the connector. I quickly ordered one of the pre-made kits from Amazon mentioned above. In comparing the OEM connector to the Amazon one, I'm pretty sure they're identical. Didn't use the butt splices provided, I used uninsulated ones w/ heatshrink.

I didn't have to clear any codes once I fixed, both my Trac and CEL lights went away.

Thanks again.

 

You are welcome. I’m glad I could help out with this.