2001 Dodge Stratus.  Pretty new at the whole DIY car thing.  Started to miss here and there really hard a few weeks ago.  Happens maybe once every day or so.  Check engine light comes on and stays on for a day.  Now yesterday it was idling in the driveway and just conked out.  Didn't start to run very hard or anything, just shut off.  Immediately after that it started very hard.  Otherwise it has and still fires right up on the first or second crank.  Finally hooked it up to a code reader.  p0340, camshaft position sensor.

I'm hoping it is just a bad sensor.  Looks easy enough to swap out.  Is it possible, if that doesn't work, it could be the crankshaft sensor?  And i've heard of guys having to flash the computer after swapping out a cam sensor.  If that ends up being the case am I pretty much stuck with a dead car until I can get someone over to flash it or will it at least run well enough to get it to a shop that can flash it(my cousins house)?

Did you check to see what codes are being tripped?

I'm not sure why you would have to ref lash the ECM after swapping a sensor.

There's a different code for a crank position sensor.

Depending on your engine, you may have to remove your cam gear to access it. In which case, you might as well do the timing belt and tensioner (if equipped) while you're in there.

You may also want to check your plugs. I was having some misfiring (bad crank pos sensor and then later a bad coil). It fouled the plugs really quick and I had noticeable drop in performance and gas mileage.

As far as programming, I've never heard of that. Disconnect your battery before you get started. It will reset all your readiness flags and cause the engine to relearn the sensors. This is the only "reprogramming" I've had to do for engine sensors. You're just using OEM parts it's not like you're adding high flow injectors or manually advancing your timing.

It's Dodge's old 2.7L V6.  All I can find online is that that code is for a bad or intermittent cam position sensor signal to the PCM.  I'm thinking all that could be is a bad connection from the sensor to the PCM, a faulty PCM, or a bad sensor.  I'm also reading that that sensor is a pretty common problem on this engine.  That's why I was thinking to start there.

Thanks for the info.  I'll be sure to pull the plugs and take a look after I get this sorted out.

It's always easiest to try what the codes say.

If the part is cheap just replace it. They always say "faulty PCM". It's like the webMD default of "cancer".

I just looked online, it looks super easy to replace, no cam gear or timing belt to deal with. It's on the left side of the engine under the upper radiator hose/AC line next to the PS fluid reservoir.