P0341 means the camshaft sensor signal is there but out of range. The sensor is producing something, and what it produces does not make sense to the engine computer. Expect starting and running glitches rather than a car that will not go at all. Diagnose soon and drive gently. Indicative UK repair cost is £60 to £400.
The difference between this code and P0340 is small on paper and significant in practice, and it is the first thing worth understanding. P0340 is a circuit code: the signal is missing or erratic, which points at the sensor, its wiring and its connector. P0341 is a performance code: the signal arrives, it is the right kind of signal, and the pattern or timing of it is wrong. That moves the suspicion away from the sensor and towards the thing the sensor is looking at.
Can I drive with P0341?
Diagnose soon, drive gently. In most cases the car still starts and still drives, which is why this code is rated less urgently than some. What you get is roughness, an occasional stumble, sometimes a longer crank than normal, and on some engines a noticeable lack of smoothness at low revs. The caution is about what it might be pointing at rather than about the symptoms themselves: a signal that is consistently in the wrong place can mean the mechanical timing has moved, and that is a different size of problem from a sensor.
What P0341 means for your MOT
One route, and the reason there is only one is itself informative.
The lamp fails it: a major defect under section 8.2.1.2 of the DVSA MOT inspection manual for petrol cars first used on or after 1 July 2003, and 8.2.2.2 for diesels first used on or after 1 July 2008.
Beyond that, your exposure is smaller than it is with the circuit version of this fault. Because the car normally keeps running with P0341, the tester can complete the emissions test and record a reading, which is not always true of a car that stalls. Whether that reading passes depends on how far out the timing is, and that is engine-specific, so it would be dishonest to promise either outcome. The lamp is the certainty, and the lamp is enough.
What usually causes it
- The camshaft position sensor. Still on the list and still worth testing, because a sensor can produce a weak or distorted signal rather than failing outright. It is just no longer the automatic first answer that it is with a circuit fault.
- The reluctor ring or trigger wheel, or the timing itself. The sensor reads teeth on a wheel. If that wheel has cracked, shifted on its hub, picked up debris, or if the chain or belt driving the camshaft has moved the whole pattern, the signal is perfectly healthy and arrives at the wrong moment. This is the cause this code points at more strongly than P0340 does.
- Wiring. A signal that is being degraded on its way to the computer rather than interrupted. Interference from a nearby high-tension lead, a damaged screen on the sensor cable, or a poor earth will all distort rather than kill a signal.
One more worth knowing, because it produces this code on a car that has just been repaired: an aftermarket sensor with a slightly different body or magnet, fitted where a genuine part was, can sit at the wrong distance from the trigger wheel. The air gap matters. A sensor that is correct in every respect except how far it sits from the teeth will give a signal out of range.
What it costs to fix in the UK
£60 to £400. A sensor on an accessible engine is the bottom, as it is with the circuit code. The top of this range is higher than P0340's for one reason: if the cause turns out to be the trigger wheel or the timing, the work goes behind a cover and the labour climbs with it.
Because the cheap answer and the dear answer look identical from the driver's seat, this is a code where paying for a proper look first is sound. What a car diagnostic costs in the UK gives you the rate to judge a quote against.
These are indicative UK ranges for guidance only. Actual causes and prices vary by vehicle, and a stored code points to a system, not always the exact part.
What to check first
- Find out whether a sensor has already been fitted, and what kind. If somebody has recently replaced it with a pattern part, that is your first suspect, and checking the air gap against the genuine item is quicker than any electrical test.
- Look at the cam and crank signals together, not separately. This code is about relative position, so a single trace tells you very little. Two traces side by side show whether the cam signal is arriving where the crank says it should, and that is the measurement the code is complaining about.
- Inspect the trigger wheel where you can see it. Debris wedged between teeth, a chipped tooth, or a wheel that has worked loose are all visible faults that no amount of electrical testing will identify.
- Treat a correlation code as the senior partner. If a crank and cam correlation code is stored alongside this one, work that first. This code can be a symptom of it, and fitting sensors to a car whose timing has moved achieves nothing.
Related codes
- P0340, camshaft position sensor circuit. The circuit version of this fault and the page to read if your signal is missing or cutting out rather than out of range.
- P0016, crankshaft and camshaft correlation. The code that takes priority if it is stored with this one, and the one that points at a stretched timing chain.
- P0011, camshaft timing over-advanced (Bank 1). The variable valve timing side of the same system, worth comparing when the cam is reporting a position it was never asked to take up.
Get it narrowed down before you spend
A stored code tells you which system is unhappy, not which part has failed. If you want it narrowed down before you spend anything, send the code and your symptoms and a mechanic will read them personally. Quick Diagnosis is £20, and if we can't help, you don't pay.
Written by the First Diagnostic mechanic. Over a decade in the trade: a VW-only workshop running diagnostics and electrical repair, then BMW-only through to full engine rebuilds. Now an independent all-makes workshop, plus building and wiring drift cars for competition, including trackside work as head mechanic. More about who reads your codes.