Kenny2g said:
The car drives just fine. No changes noticed. What do you mean by flooding? It's a stick shift. But what is a cam sensor? I used to own a E36 325I Auto tranny.
I'm not 100% sure of the complete process, but as I understand it the cam sensors play a part in the timing of the firing of your plugs and the ignition, and making all 6 cylinders 'fire' at the right time.
Cam sensors seem to go out fairly commonly on E46's. When they do, you'll experience trouble starting (like it feels 'flooded'), problems with revving, and dying completely if the car isn't moving. Basically if the sensor is out - it's not firing at the right time, not all the gas is getting burned due to this, so it starts 'flooding' (The 'feel' of it at least - a dead gas pedal, slow to no response unless under accelleration already, etc)
A reader can tell you the exact fault code, which cam sensor is out (intake/exhaust), which cylinder, etc.
Sometimes with the cam sensor thrown - the car will be absolutely fine. turn it off, go do something come back - problems like I described. Park it again later, come out, it may run absolutely fine again until the next time the car is turned 'off' and the sensor doesn't get that cylinder in 'line' firing correctly with the rest.
Hope that helps describe a Cam sensor problem. It's not too serious but seems like it's not uncommon on E46's from the # I've seen reported across tha various BMW forums I haunt.
