azure

At least I think so. We were working on my buddy's 2010 Suburban that had a bunch of codes, including P0011. We were trying to remove the camshaft sensor that is under the water pump on the front of the block. Well, we had a hard time with it and weren't too smart about it (don't ask) and most of the sensor housing ending up cracking off leaving us with nothing to pull it out by, so we did our best to very carefully drill it out/pull out pieces while praying nothing would fall inside the engine! We had screwed a wood screw into the middle of the piece of the sensor that was stuck inside, and were trying to pull on the screw head to get the broken sensor out. It worked pretty well, but when almost all of it was out, the head of the screw broke off inside the rest of the sensor. At this point we just continued to carefully work and pull out what was left and to drill it out. When we were almost done, the last small pieces of plastic fell down inside!! I'm not so worried about the plastic itself because I imagine it could easily shred and disintegrate. But it is pretty likely that there was still a piece of the screw in there, up to possibly an inch long. We did drill some of it out, so who knows maybe most or all of the screw was already drilled out, but I think it's pretty likely that some of it fell in. I'm really nervous about this obviously. We started up the car, wincing and preparing for the worst. At first it seemed to run ok, or at least not any worse than before. The car still has the P0011 code (new sensor didn't fix it), it also has a P0420 for low catalyst efficiency which it had before, and it has P0300 for general misfire, which I'm not sure if it had before. So even before all this drama we know there's an issue from before with the catalytic converter, seemingly, and my buddy has had very difficult acceleration to the point that he had to pull on to the shoulder of the highway because he couldn't drive anymore. So the car was definitely not driving well previously either. But although when we first turned it on after this incident it seemed to still drive "normal" meaning same as before, a few hours later he told me it seems worse, the engine is making noise even when the car is idling, and the acceleration issue is even worse. I'm not sure if he had a misfire code (P0300) or not before all this drama, so I'm wondering if that could be a symptom of something falling into the engine or not? Would that cause a misfire? On the other hand, it seems like it's pretty common to have misfires come along with the P0011 code so it's probably not too crazy to assume he may have had it before also. And the "new symptoms" that are worse may just be the worsening of his existing issues, or it may be from our "accident." Hope some of you guys have some thoughts about this. Obviously if a piece of metal really did "fall in" and is "floating around" in there, his engine is in big trouble. But if it was true, would the engine have "self-destructed" immediately? Is the fact that that didn't happen proof that we're okay in terms of that? It's hard to know if we should move on with repairs to the catalytic s and the cam issues if we're not sure about this new engine disaster. Thanks everyone!!!!

kevinkpk

I wouldn't worry about the screw, the filter won't let it pass. I would, however next oil change install a magnetic drain plug. The P420 code (Or whatever) is emissions, and nothing to do with engine performance. The P300 is your problem. The misfire is probably telling you a complete tune up. If the thing is backfiring, and won't run, bucks ect. It probably is a plugged cat. I had that issue a few years back with my Mazda, pulled the cat out, went back with a straight pipe.

azure

Thanks for the advice Kevin. I will look into that magnetic drain plug idea. Any thoughts on the p0011 code?

kevinkpk

Just because a part is new, dosen't mean it is good. Not familar with a cam sensor, however I've replaced about a million crankshaft sensors. Those, and I have to assume are a magnetic speed pickup, It developes a sine wave signal reading gear or a reclutor ring. Faster it turns the higher the frequency, and that's read by the pcm. I've ohmed out the coil, and on the crank sensor it's around 100K ohm, and the tip should be able to attract small screws, as it should be magnetic.