[DAVID,]

Okay, here I go, long story I will try to summarize:

I have one of those problematic N52 engines in regards to the aluminum bolts breaking on the valve cover cylinder head forward side (3 under valve cover and 1 external by oil filter housing). This caused slight oil consumption/leakage, which in turned caused that hard to clean grease like grime to get on the serpentine belt area and pulleys. This in turn caused my belt to slip off after a good few months of its use. Upon further inspection, noticed the belt was slightly overhanging the tensioner pulley (by 1/8"), checked tensioner, seemed to provide plenty of tension, thought it was weird but went on thinking it was just the oil...eventually got tired of changing belts from 3 months on to 6 months and looked more into it. The crankshaft pulley seemed to be suspect by more people than just myself with up to 4 different people's opinon, so I decide to pull it off and inspect the rubber, which turned out fine (it was the tensioner bad, later changed), however this is where I screwed up. I didn't bother using a manual, thinking nothing could go wrong (lesson learned). I took the pulley off from the crankshaft bolt (Big one that is always torqued by Superman himself), this in turn removes the Hub along with the crankshaft which would of been fine, however my oil pump drive chain sprocket holder (Plastic P.O.S) broke from the load tension against it... This caused a whole mess of crap (Lowering subframe, mounts, steering column pinch bolt, oil pan, etc.) Anyways that stuff I replaced already.

My question is how the hell do I have a P0341 Camshaft fault (Indicates to me that I screwed up the timing) when I didn't change the chain, nor change where the teeth sit on either VANOS camshaft units, nor the sprocket that engages on the crankshaft hub?

I bought a manual and thoroughly understand all the tooling involved with checking the timing on this, but with my interpretation of the tooling involved would of been necessary if I had actually changed the chain, but I didn't. I simply did not move the VANOS and reengaged the sprocket in the same position (doesn't give you room to even move it to a different position on the currently installed chain). Well anyways now vehicle cranks over, rotates, camshaft is turning (Viewed turning thru oil fill cover) and it won't start, got a P0341 fault "Camshaft Position Sensor A Circuit Range/Performance B1 pending.

All troubleshooting that I've read indicates a wiring issue or bad cam sensor, however this would be suspect if this sort of maintenance was not performed. Also, the fault is described as when TDC signal from CAM sensor is out of range. So, now I'm trying to understand how the maintenance I did threw it off possibly??? I know a wire could be a potential, but the download diagnostic doesn't pick up IM problems, which tells me its communicating with the sensor, however out of range. I'm hoping someone knows something that might be better than re-opening the valve cover and installing 500 dollars in timing tools (BMW specific tooling). Thanks in advance.