I am just not having much luck with my 02 SE. Today I pulled into a gas station to fill-up and when I went to start my car, it started up and immediatly shut itself off. I tried turning it back on and it wouldn't start fror anything. I waited about 10 minutes and it started but really ran like absolute crap. I drove it out of the station and it cleared itself up, right after that a service engine light came on. I took it to a Auto Zone and it came up to be a bad cam sensor. So, I replaced the sensor and had the code cleared, the car started right up and ran fine.

About 5 minutes after that my service engine light came back on, but it wasn't running poorly at all. It seemed fine but I took it back anyways to return the sensor for another. It turned out they didn't have anymore so I just ended up getting my money back. I put the old one back in and had the code reset again. After that my service engine light hasn't came on and it'* ran fine since then. What could've caused it to do this and why would it clear up after that?

When you filled up, did you continue to top it off after the pump kicked off? That has been known to cause the symptoms that you are describing. However, it generally doesn't set a cam sensor code. Some of AutoZone'* sensors are not top quality. So, for now...if you did top off the tank, try to refrain from doing that, and see if the light comes back.

Yeah, I did "top off", that was the first time I have in a long time. I'd go somewhere else for parts, but Auto Zone is the closest thing for 35 miles.

Something else to consider here is that they saw a cam sensor code, doesn't mean the sensor was bad. It would mean something was causing an issue and the code the PCM saw was the cam sensor code.

I got the code again today, but this time my car completely shut off. I knew it wasn't the sensor this time, so I started looking for other things. Near the PCM I found two wires, a black and a green one, exposed and touching each other. I separated them and wrapped electrical tape around each one before I erased the code. I turned my car back on and haven't had a problem since then. I'm guessing the wires shorted out on each other and sent the cam code.

Sounds like a good possibility. I hope that fixes it for you. Any idea what caused the wires to become exposed?

Yeah, my CAI wasn't fully held in place and wore into them. I rerouted the CAI and repaired the wires. I haven't had a problem since.