let me tell you what happened before I go changing things.

I spent the night @ my girlfriend'* and had to leave early for work. Long story short, I drove about 30 mins @ 80 mph with the car in 2nd.

I don't have a tac and couldn't hear the engine (road noise/radio) so I had no idea...never had any problems passing anyone or anything unusual...

about 3/4 the way to work the service engine light came on. I just did the paperclip trick and got code 41.

I wanted some input before I went on to replace the magnet.

2nd gear, 80mph, for 30min? And your engine still starts? Redline is 78mph for me, with the 2.97 ratio. Since you have an LE, then you'll probably have a lower ratio. None the less, you were at least at 5 grand. No strange noises man? That engine HAD to of been crying. No way it was 2nd gear. You sure not 3rd or OD w/o TCC lockup?

Anyways, your problem. Since you were probably at a higher than norm RPM, it'* probably the cam magnet that broke. So just a cam sensor isn't going to fix it. You would also need to fix the magnet [may as well replace the sensor as well since you are there]. Check out Padgett'* site for the skinny on how you are going to fix this.

http://bellsouthpwp.net/p/a/padgett46/cammag.htm

I'm sure...after pulling off the interstate and onto a highway I looked down and I was in 2nd.

Like I said, the car makes a lot of noise anyways and I was super tired...rather embarrasing really....


How bad is it to drive like this? I won't have time to work on it till at least Monday and need to run a lot of errands today/tomorrow.

If that engine could survive that, you have one helluva car my friend. If you are just going to drive her till she dies... you have a long road ahead of you

Driving with a code 41 is fine, but the car may run not so good. Basically the ECU may be confused about when cyl #1 is at TDC. If the engine runs poorly just shut it off and turn it back on, hopefully it'll run a bit better. Continue doing that if it doesn't. After 5 tries it doesn't run better, it'* not the cam sensor causing it'* poor drivability. Your fuel economy may be effected by this too.. not too much, but maybe 5mpg?

Just stalled on me...maybe I'll get right on this :(

30 minutes at 5k? Now whose going to say that the 3800 LN3 isn't BULLETPROOF.

But really, I don't know about that...it'* almost impossible to drive without knowing your engine is revving high. When I'm at redline I can hear my engine over pretty loud music and other sounds. Wouldn't have also had to have had your foot down pretty far to maintain that kind of speed in 2nd, and had absolutely no room left for acceleration?

You'd actually be surprised how little throttle you need to sustain 5k run in 2nd. It'* about the same as 80 in OD with TCC.

did the car restart after the stall? If not, it probably isn't the cam sensor causing that. If it started right back up, it probably was from the cam sensor.

yeah, started right back up. then died quick then started right back up again.

I didn't use my foot, I used cruise the entire way.

Code 41 means that you engine has detected a fault with your cam sensor. You could have a bad cam sensor, or its possible that the magnetic interrupter on on the cam shaft came apart. Well if the sensor is bad then just replace the sensor. It has one 10mm bolt that it bolts to in the timing cover. If the interrupter on the sproket inside the front timing cover has come off then it time to replace the timing chain and replace the magnet interrupter. You will notice now that the car will not advance the timing correctly. Not that difficult of a job,but time consuming. I've done several of these on the first 3800 series engines.