P0016 For no good reason

[Holmessato]

Just changed Cam cover today to resolve an oil leak, and P0016 came up after a mile or so. Cleared it and it came back immidiately. Cam sensor was correctly seated in the new cover and connections are good. All checked out fine.
No performance issues, runs fine (oil leaks around cover seem cured too), just the one code.
Timing chain was done a year or so back, and there has not been any P0016 since Ive owned it. Timing chain and tensioner looked spot on today when I had the cover off.
Can only imagine the sensor is ultra sensitive to gap to the cam and the new cover may just be moving it fractionally further away (or new oil seal thats not so crushed causes it to stan higher?).
I was unbelieveable carefull while doing the work, so cant beleive Ill have harmed anything else.
New sensor on order but from reading previous posts Im not holding my breath.

Has anyone ever solved this issue? Ive seen at least 2 other posts with exactly the same scenario...and seems the issue was not fixed before despair and giving up.
I dont mean when its caused by stretched timing chain or incorrect timing, because thats deffinitly not the issue here.

 

[diogosaka]

Carefull with the wiring to the cam and cranck sensor as they are finicky AF. Both sensors work together so generally when you change/clean 1 you should do the other as well...

 

[Charlie1875]

That’s unfortunate mate, I had a similar issue, changed the hpfp and after a couple of days it threw the p0016 up, camshaft crankshaft correlation, each and every time I’ve had a p0116 code I’ve replaced the timing chain kit.
the timing only has to be slightly out for it to throw the code up, you could change the camshaft position sensor first and see but I believe when that goes it throws a different fault code up. Good luck

 

[neilgsxr69]

Did you buy a genuine rocker cover? I’ve heard that some aftermarket covers can have faults with the PCV there’s a YouTube video on it, long shot but I we’re talking to a Peugeot specialist about the rocker cover leaking and he said he’s known the 0016 code to crop up if the cover is not airtight

 

[Gina0151]

Hi there. I had that code happen 5 years ago after having high pressure fuel pump and water pump replaced. The garage didn’t put rocker cover back on correctly, got oil all over the engine and pcv valve breather hose/O ring issues as I recall. Kept getting P0016 fault code and noticed timing chain making a noise only after engine got warmer or say after 30 mins driving. It was fine before that garage did the other work. The garage said nothing wrong with chain, wasn’t loose. Didn’t look obviously loose but the noise wasn’t always present at first. Got worse. But after repeatedly taking it to 5 different garages they finally found P0016 fault to be crankshaft position sensor AND the timing chain did have some play and was slightly loose. Inside they found bits of broken housing or plastic. Replaced timing chain and auxiliary belt and new crank sensor. All good and has been fine now for 5 years since. That was 2019 and everything just seemed to happen at once.I have had my 2011 RCZ 1.6 GT THP 156 for 8 years now, purchased it in 2016. No issues since no fault codes since.
I hope its your crank position sensor they are notorious for throwing tantrums after the rocker cover and gasket are removed/replaced. Check your water pump and also the hose as that’s where my problems arose. Found out afterwards that the high pressure fuel pump was replaced prior to purchase of vehicle already and they hadn’t deleted old fault code so I paid for another HP fuel pump unnecessarily. Bloody expensive!
Enjoy your RCZ they are amazing cars and thankfully don’t have the crappy puretech Peugeot engines. Everyone seems to generally slag off Peugeots as a bad buy but they don’t understand the RCZ is a concept car brought into production on licence made in Austria by the same factory that produces BMW, Mercedes Benz and Toyata Supra. Amazing car once you maintain the known issues (oil, timing chain slack, temp sensor and crankshaft position sensor - oh and sometimes the MAF or MASS sensor too) Love my RCZ looks better than an Audi TT and drives nicer than Porsche