Hi guys anyone ever come across this code or similar symptoms?

"P0761position sensor of exhaust cam shaft bank 1 has a short circuit to positive"

symptoms are hard to start, slight power loss, worse than usual fuel economy, throws out timing

diagnosis as per auto electrician
damaged wiring harness
engine management computer has gone bad

remedy
$$$$$$$$ lol

he has given me these options
bypass the existing computer $1700
rebuild/repair existing computer $2200
purchase a second hand unit $2700
buy a brand new one $3400

this is the third person i have taken the car to and the third opinion should i be getting a fourth? Lol

first one put it down to bad crank position sensor

second said the motor had to come out to do the timing lol
and now this.

any thoughts guys. Thanks

 

Well 3 opinions = no one is right until you get 2 that agree. I would start at the simplest fix and replace the sensor that may have failed, it would be unlikely that the wiring harness is damaged causing the computer to fail unless someone damaged the harness or some mice got in the car (then insurance pays). Did the person that said the harness is damaged actually show you the damage?

Also you can switch them left to right if they are the same sensor on both banks and see if the issue moves (pretty easy to take them out or just spend 20 bucks for a new one to see if it is the sensor). Searching around seems they fail a fair bit in many mercedes models and symptoms are pretty much what you are seeing

If the camshaft sensor has failed you will notice some or all of the following:

Check Engine Light – (CEL) / Service Engine Warning may turn on, and you will have a fault code related to the CAM sensor.
Intermittent starting – This is a very common problem if the Camshaft Sensor starts to fail. You may notice the car starts fine one day and then hesitates to start the next. It could also be that the car starts fine when cold, but if it warms up, it’s hard to restart it.
Loss of engine power – Less common but it is possible that the car may hesitate under acceleration or even trigger misfire codes. This is caused because the Electronic Control Module (ECM / ECU) does not receive any information from the CAM sensor, so it doesn’t know the crankshaft position.

 

Also are you sure it is a P0761 code, that is typically a shift solenoid OBD code.

 

Ill definitely be getting another opinion just to be sure, Yes i was shown personally the damaged wiring and exactly how it all went down. (frayed serpentine belt caught in the a/c pulley kept whipping the harness as it spun around) one of the workshops offered me a complete wiring harness as well to try incase the issue was further down the existing torn harness.

Im basically getting all of the symptoms you have described. and despite the fault reading cam position sensor, all three workshops have not suggested changing it lol

and yes 100% sure of the code here is fault in question

 

Ok that makes more sense to me now. So it is likely there is a short in the harness that was damaged. To me that is the first fix either open the harness and fix the damaged wires or replace the harness. It is likely at least a couple of the cam position sensor wires are damaged and the ECU is not able to communicate the the cam position sensor. That would be the first thing to ensure is correct and then if issue continue it is certainly possible the ECU was damaged if it something was shorted and fried something.

 

Hi guys i know its been a while but i thought i would update this incase it helps someone else out one day. So the car is fixed!! Finally after months of workshop visits.

So what we gathered with the auto electrician who runs star diagnostics was that the cars earth system has a short due to the damaged wiring. All the associated wiring has since been repaired and from what i understood is that the affected computer has been repaired/rebuilt and a bypass has been added so the earth which usually grounds straight to the chassis of the car now has a fuse.

Car starts just fine and not sure if its because i havnt driven it for so long but it runs great. The exhaust note is sharper the throttle response is much better and surprisingly fuel economy isnt as bad as it was when we had all the issues.

so ultimately if i had replaced the harness alone there would have still been some trouble codes or errors that needed to he attended to and unlike the second opinion i had a complete rebuild and adjustment of the timing wasnt necessary.

my advice to anyone struggling with diagnosing issues on cars like ours is dont jusy get 2 opinions, go for 3 or even 4. What made me most comfortable with the workshop that carried out the final repairs is that they explained their findings in detail with pictures and gave me a list of options depending on my budget. Ultimately they themselves recommended the cheapest option and it worked.

 

Hey I’m having the same issue kinda, I have changed 2 ecu’s because I snapped a belt and fried the ecu. This time the belt didn’t snap but spun 1st n 2nd and same codes came back up camshaft a n b, fuel pressure and fan kicking on. The shop I took it to said all fuses are good and there’s no short in the wires. It’s a 2013 magnuson supercharged.
thansk

 

What does it mean ECU bypass? Have same issue