My cam postion sensor just died on my 94 (~185k mi). My mechanic (Howard at the Sports Car Center for the STL locals) said this is the first he's ever replaced on a Miata (and he works on lots of Miatas). He called me later in the day after I got the car down there (1st tow in 10 years) and said he had an interesting conversation with another mechanic in the area. Apparently this other mechanic said he's replaced a ton of these.. he even keeps a spare in the trunk of his own Miata since they're so prone to failure! Of course, one might ask why he's seen so many while this is the first Howard has seen.. but more importantly, I was wonderring what the experience was here.
Have any/many of you had cam postion sensors fail? It's a pretty expensive little part ($500+ local, $400 at one of the online shops - Rosenthal I think it was). I was able to find a pretty young one (45k mi) at an online boneyard (PartsGroup.com) for $125. Based on Howard's experience and the fact that mine went about 185k mi, the used one looks like a pretty good option.
-Scott