I recently swapped my 2.0 cam for the 1.8. Nice performance from the cam however the CEL came on and didn't go out.

I had it at the dealership for some service and a buddy of mine there was working on it. He said the the cam is causing the CEL. I know that there have been many others who have done this mod and was wondering if any of you have had this problem before and if so... How the heck did you fix it.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe some of the 1.8 cams are different than others... He said that the cam sensor was the problem, and that as long as I had that cam in my car the CEL would be on. Did you guys somehow bypass the sensor or did you modify anything?

I race my car in autox and when the CEL is on it causes the car to run based on some factory setting which is not that good since the engine is not running at optimal performance for a race situation. I would like to get this sorted out quickly since I have many races scheduled this summer.

 

give me the cel number and i can tell you more.

 

sure it is a 1.8 and not an XD cam? I have been running a 1.8 for the last 60,000 miles and the only CEL I get is for a burned out O2 sensor... getting that changed soon.

 

ya i never had a problem with mine

 

I've got a 97 Tib with the XG cam on it for well over 15K miles, no issues with sensors.

Find out the CEL for sure.

 

^^^oh it has issues with sensors

we just dont know which lmao.gif

 

Theres only a few reasons I can see the cam causing a cel, either the cams where not set right with the timing either the cam belt or chain are off set, you forgot to install the small pin that goes into the cam for the cam sensor and you may have damaged the cam sensor when installing the cam, other than that theres not much else you can mess up while installing it, if everything was done correctly you should not have a cel.

 

^^ Agreed. Did you spin the motor over to find the lil mark on the old cam, and install the new one the exact same way?

 

I bought the cam from JonGTR and am taking his word for it that it is the 1.8L cam.

What does this pin look like and where is it on the cam? If I have missed it then I will have to go back in there and see if I can figure out the issue. Also, where is the cam sensor located? I don't want to have to take the valve cover off again if I don't have to.

 

I pull the cams from 97-98 Elantras. Most of them were 1.8's and are labeled that way. Even have the 1.8 injectors. So yea, I'm positive. cool.gif

Check that there are 5 links inbetween the cams and that the divots are alligned on both cams. Also make sure that the cam sensor on the opposite side isn't damaged and that there is still a notch on the end of the cam for the sensor to read.