2004 Ford Taurus ses

Is it safe to drive when your service engine light is on because of the camshaft position sensor A? My peddle vibrates at about 40mph, could that be related?

It is safe as long as you don’t mind being stranded by the side of the road. And YES a vibration at 40 could be related.

I’m guessing with a 15 year old car, with ??? miles on it a LOT of things could be going wrong.

I was going to fix it myself by watching how to do it. Is it an easy process?

I don’t know if it is easy on this particular car. I will say that if you have no technical education in troubleshooting these things, it is pretty likely you will not fix the problem. Just because the code says cam position sensor A, doesn’t mean it IS, it just means it COULD be that or several other problems.

You didn’t say, but I will guess the code you got was a P0340. THIS is what could be wrong with that code;

P0340 Causes

  • Faulty PCM
  • Defective, corroded, shorted camshaft position sensor circuit wiring
  • Defective, corroded, shorted camshaft position sensor circuit connector
  • Defective camshaft position sensor
  • Faulty crankshaft position sensor

You want to fix the 4th one down on the list of 5. You have a 20% chance of the car running after you are done. If you want to tackle that, it becomes a game of; “Do you feel lucky?”