P0341 - need help troubleshooting

[MonLand]

Hi, Newbie here, so please be gentle if I missed a sticky or did not plug the right keywords in the search engine! :\

Car is questions is mk6 2012 GTI with 100K miles.
bone stock, nothing was done to it other than regular maintenance and driving it.

wife called me this morning and mentioned that the engine made some noise while cold, jitteres/studdered and ask me to be close to my phone in case that she needed help getting home. CEL and EPC lights came on.
Whole drive is 3-4 miles top.
anyway, they were at the soccer field. After game, car started fine, cel was on, EPC was off. Car came back home.

I read the codes and got a P0341 camshaft position sensor out of range.
I listened to the engine and can hear a noise that equate to a vacuum pump noise (tick tick tick) from inside the cabin. There is another noise at idle that disappears above 1500 RPM. I recorded it, but don’t think I can upload .wav files here (will try though).
Reading online, there seems to be a known issue with that engine that has to do with the timing chain tensioner going bad.
i don’t want to throw parts at the problem, but also don’t want to start tearing into the engine (it’s cold outside and there is not much space in that engine bay!!!!).
what would help be diagnose (or rule out) the potential “timing chain tensioner” issue? Is there a step by step somewhere?

 

[MonLand]

Link to recorded engine noise: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AnB3SOaqKPEXjQwBREYrCm9Xt2xU

 

[BudgetPhoenix]

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/coronavirus-relief-for-retirement-plans-and-iras

If you have VCDS or OBDEleven or something you could check your cam phaser timing but if your timing jumps usually youll *usually* get more codes like p0016 or misfires so its possible the CPS sensor it self may be bad. You can also pull the timing covers and physically check timing with calipers.


Also if you have a 2012 you should probably check to see if you have the old or updated timing chain tensioner before it grenades your engine.

 

[GolferGTI12]

Its really easy and rather inexpensive to change out the cam positioning sensor so I would recommend doing that. But also check the timing chain tensioner. You're still in the model year range and mileage that would make you prone to that thing going bad and causing a lot of problems. I can't find the exact forum post on how to check it with the little window on the engine, but I know it can be done. And like @BudgetPhoenix said you can always use a scan tool to see what degree of timing you're at and that can also tell you if the tensioner is going bad. Here's some basic information on the revised tensioner:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/blog.f...g-chain-tensioner-symptoms-review?hs_amp=true

Also check your oil level and make sure you're not low. I have had issues before of the engine cutting in and out when the oil level was low so why not give that a shot too.

I would also recommend checking to make sure your wiring harness is tightly plugged into every spot that it needs to be plugged into. When I put the harness back in after re-installing my engine, I had one connection that wasn't tight and it was apparently causing my EPC light to come on.

I am by no means a mechanic or anything like that, but what I've recommended is what I have dealt with in my time of owning my GTI. I would be willing to be money that your problems are tensioner related though