P0012: Camshaft Position A - Timing Over-Retarded

[TRaj2327]

Just started getting this check engine code the other night with an intermittent oil light after the car was in the body shop for a month...the oil light periodically will come on and then shuts off no more than a second or two later. Seems likely that it is the control solenoid which is oil driven or the actuator on the intake camshaft. Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this. Considering if I'm going to tackle it myself or let the stealership take care of it, but it looks like the solenoid is about $150 and should require a pretty basic remove and reinstall. Also considered the idea that it was brutally cold here for a while when it was at the shop, probably in the lot while waiting on parts, and it's due for an oil change anyway.

Chime in if you've had any similar experience on this, but I found the service manual and plan to test the solenoid in the next couple days.

2011 Kizashi w/ CVT and just under 160,000 miles.

[Ronzuki]

Lets back up a bit...why was the car in the body shop for a month? Was it wrecked? Frontal damage? How bad? A side-effect from the damage...or more likely the repair? Was this an issue before the extended body shop stay? If not, Insurance should cover the repair then. Those guys are generally hacks when it comes to mechanics and wreck a bunch of things in the process of making the car look good again on the outside.

Long, seemingly never-ending, body shop story...
After my car suffered a bitch slapping from swirling debris caused by a tornado, the insurance approved reputable body shop replaced my windshield on my car w/o telling me they were doing it (I had no issue with the original and saw zero scratches after driving it for a week). They put in some crappy aftermarket glass. After noticing that it didn't wipe clean as it always had, no matter what kind of wiper blade I had on there I went back and asked if they had done anything. It wasn't on MY copy of the repair order. But lo-n-behold it was on the paperwork they'd submitted to my insurance company. After questioning the quality of the glass, they lied to me by telling me they couldn't get OE glass from Suzuki. I found out a year later, while at the zuk ex-dealer, that was untrue. Both my headlamp assemblies were replaced with inferior, used, assemblies. Again w/o my knowledge, or approval, when nothing was wrong with my perfect condition, non-faded originals after the tornado damage. I realized they weren't my originals many months after when I changed a headlamp bulb and found the L/R adjustment plugs I'd removed and tossed were magically installed again on both units. I'm sure they busted the headlamps removing them to repaint the fenders. They busted off one of the clips that holds the fog light wire to the car's internal structure because they weren't careful enough removing the bumper cover they had to repaint. And on and on. Every time I turn around, I see something else they efed up, or tried to hide, when I go to do something to the car. Incompetent hacks.
But hey...it looked good.

Soooo, I'd be very suspicious of the car sitting at a body shop for any length of time.

[TRaj2327]

The bodyshop would be 100% unrelated. I had a gouge on the roof that needed repair. No reason for anything to be touched under the hood. Why it was there so long is probably an even longer story than your but really just came down to paperwork and approval issues and the availability of the clip on the side-curtain airbags. Nothing related to the engine.

[Ronzuki]

alrighty then, scratch that idea. There was a thread on here with some pretty great pics from an engine removal and top end disassembly/re-assembly, due to a bad head gasket, that may be helpful to your decision making (you or the dealer).

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=4269&hilit=head+gasket+replacement

[TRaj2327]

Yea I scrolled through that one. Turns out I do have a leaky valve cover gasket so I will have to at least pull that off. Miraculously the CEL went out the other night and hasn't acted up sense. No oil light. No nothing. I'm going to continue to let it ride for a while and see what happens. I'm pretty well convinced that the cold and the fact that I'm due to change the oil out played hand in hand in causing the issue.

[Ronzuki]

Forgot to ask since it had been setting for a long time and it is cold out...how's the condition of the battery? Funny things start happening when it's time for a new one.

[DiggerDerrik]

Ronzuki is 100% correct about batteries causing weird issues when they start going bad. Never had an issue with that on my Kizashi but on my Ford Super Duty it stopped recognizing the keys. It would start just fine with the factory remote start but when the key was inserted it would shut off and show a “Starting System Fault”. Replaced the batteries (it’s a diesel so has 2 of them) and the problem went away.

I believe the life expectancy of car batteries is 3-6 years depending on a lot of factors.

[Tom Kizzie]

I also think the same. I have been seeing batterylife going from 10 to 5 years in the -20 years. My first car 11 years with oroginal batt. Last 3 batt changes were after about 5 years max