I spoke with Kelly (guy) at the LA aftermarket location. They sell directly to; Rock Auto, Auto Zone, Advance Auto, O'reilly's (however you spell that), Parts Authority and there are more. They are in fact the original equipment. They sell only the plastic housed units now because too many people were replacing their old sensors with the metal housed units and thinking that they got the wrong one, only to then return'em.
The numbers on the box and on the sensor are all the same so to verify whether they are a Chinese copy or not would be impossible, assuming the copying company was detail oriented.
So, I personally feel 100% confident that getting a Hitachi sensor or throttle body in a Hitachi box from any of the above auto parts stores will be genuine oe and genuine Hitachi. Rock Auto tends to have the best price & that's where I'm getting mines.
To reiterate, the sensors sold from GA to the dealers are in fact the very same ones sold from CA to the aftermarket. Bet there's people out there that would've liked to know this before they gave their left ******** for 3 measly sensors.

 

Hell yeah, thanks for checking into that.

 

No problem. I bought both cam & the crank position sensors a couple hours ago from Rock Auto and they've already shipped'em. They'll be here by Friday so I guess I got this to take care of. I'd rather be installing a go-fast goodie. I figured I might as well replace'em as I can't be certain if I got lucky with my driver side sensor fix or if it was a warning of failure in the near future.

 

Props to you, man. That's real persistence to benefit the community.

 

Thanks. Hey, if I figure something out, I'll share it. I wouldn't have even considered it if it weren't for kelman, cleric and I over this issue. It would be nice if manufacturers and sellers were a bit more specific so I wouldn't have had to have spent an hour making several phone calls to figure out something that will benefit us, sure, but Hitachi as well. Dumbasses. In Rock Auto's defense, it does read that these are oe, it just wasn't too terribly convincing.

 

I had a p0345 thrown a few weeks ago and fixed it without replacing the sensor, at least temporarily. Never came back BUT I took it as a warning so I replaced both cam and the crank sensors today.
One thing I noticed that others have mentioned was that there was oil in the sensor's plug, but just one plug, the driver's side p0345 sensor plug. The other 2 were bone dry and as far as I'm concerned, I wasted approx $90 on 2 sensors that were perfectly fine. So, oil in the plug probably has something to do with failure. How the hel it gets in there I do not know. My engine and bay are bone dry and clean, the outside of the sensors and plugs were clean, so it came from within.

 

Hmm, are you talking oil in the female part of the plug, where the male wire harness plugs into the sensor? The driver's side would be more likely to get oil in it, if leaking down from a dirty throttle body. I can't imagine how oil would get from the camshaft through the sensor as they are sealed pretty well.

 

Yes, the plug on the sensor, not the harness plug. The sensors were all very clean, obviously not the portion that resides in the head but the outside was clean. I thought the same and looked it over for a minute. Not sure how it happens but it does. My engine bay is really clean but I suppose it's possible prior to doing what I've done that oil seeped in between the plugs but at this point I don't think so.
When looking inside the plug, it looks like oil could infiltrate but the sensor part is totally sealed.
I replaced my throttle body several months ago and there was definitely no oil in or around it. The intake side of the pcv system could be to blame IF it were close enough, but it's not and mine was never leaking oil. The only other possibility I can think of would be an oil leak at the back of the valve cover which I'm 99% positive there is not one. No oil leaks at all, anywhere.