P0021 code 2002 Altima SE 3.5 L V-6

[Charlie]

Hello all! I have an 02 Nissan Altima SE with the 3.5L V-6 and 95,000 miles. Car has been well maintained with synthetic 5W-30 every 5K.

I get a ERROR CODE: P0021 Intake Camshaft – Position Timing Over Advanced (Bank 2) [[left bank]] about once or twice a year, about every 6,000 miles. The car never changes in output or idle and I go to an auto parts store and clear the code. The code seems random and does not consistently occur during the same car activity. One time I was idling in a drive through, one time I was on the freeway, one time I was driving on city streets. This is the only code that has ever come up on the car.

I’m coming up on the spark plug change where I have to remove the intake manifold. I was thinking that while the car is apart I could try and chase down this code – maybe a loose connection to a sensor?

Any suggestions are appreciated!

Topic

[John B Kobberstad]

Could also be that the connector to sensor connection needs to be cleaned with an electrical contact cleaner. Just did it with a coolant temperature sensor that was generating a code. Sprayed contact cleaner into the connector and the sensor pins let it dry and the problem has not returned. Was done about 3 weeks ago.

John

[college man]

here is the fsm for some troubleshooting.
start at EC765

http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Altima/2002/ec.pdf

[EricTheCarGuy]

Nice post College man. Looking through the diagnostics I’m wondering if it has something to do with your synthetic oil. You might try switching to regular oil and see if you still get the code if you’re not able to find anything physically wrong with it.

[Charlie]

Thank you Eric-The-Car-Guy and college man and johnbkobb! The issue is so rare and sporadic that it’s hard to tell the root cause. I compared my oil change records to the dates of the error codes and there does not seem to be a pattern – e.g. old oil and new oil does not result in the error code. The last time of the error was May this year.
1.) Trying a non-synthetic oil might help – we will see.
2.) If I wanted to check the connection of the sensor that is producing the P0021 error code, how do I find the sensor that is producing the error – Intake Camshaft Sensor, Bank 2/left bank? I have a PDF service manual and I can’t find a diagram with the sensor.

Thank you in advance for your assistance!

[Author]

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