....OR....it gets damaged during replacement of cap or rotor.

 

ah, never had that happen, however it would not be too hard as it is a thin piece of plastic and it can get brittle over the years that a thumb can punch through the disc if you slip trying to contort yourself to the rear of the engine bay.

 

I had the cam sensor go out on my 97 5.9l about a year ago. At first it would just be a hard start then one morning all it would do is spin over and not catch at all, was pretty strange as it acted like the motor had no compression, ie; spun over faster than normal. Anyhow I popped the cap and rotor after pulling the code and replaced with a new one and its been fine since.

Larry