My CEL came on Monday afternoon and the battery light, so i coasted to the shoulder and shut the car off. I plugged my scanner in and the code was P0341. Dropped it off at the local VW tuesday and couple hours later they called and said the cam sensor and bearing bracket (camshaft bridge) needed to be replaced.
My question is, how would those things fail? is it just regular wear or is it how a person drives?
The camshaft position sensor is commonly known for oil leaks, and my outright fail, but it is a very easy part to replace since it is right on the front of the engine.
The camshaft adjuster bridge is also a common failure part. There is an oil screen that is prone to perforation and potentially a piece of the oil screen being dislodged. Sometimes the piece of the screen can cause damage to something along the valvetrain, but other times it can be totally asymptomatic, perhaps ending up in the oil filter getting removed when changed.
Both of these items appear to be related to the design of the parts, not sensitive to how the vehicle is driven.
When I had my timing chain tensioner replaced proactively, they also found that my camshaft bridge oil screen was perforated. It's nearly impossible to tell when it might have occurred, and mine was asymptomatic.
If you have them replace just the cam sensor and you have no further problems, it may not even be worth it to replace the bridge if there are no other symptoms. Some people just remove the rest of the oil screen and put the bridge back in, since it is fine otherwise.