not quite

Putting the engine at tdc is a good idea (just so you know where it is) but it is not needed.

You remove the bracket that holds the cam angle sensor in and pull it out. It can be hard, but it will come.

You dont need to (and shouldnt) turn the engine while you do it.

I had to turn the engine, and when it got to the right spot it just slid out. I am guessing if you pull on it hard because it won't come out, you're gonna break something. If you look at it, there is a notch cut out of one of the rings so it will only come out at the right spot.

what does the cam angle sensor do?

i wonder why they botherd with it when it already had a crank angle sensor on the timing cover?

The cam angle sensor tells the ECU what stroke the engine is on. The crank angle sensor gives the ecu the exact position.

TwistedEL - You definitely dont need to turn the engine. The center shaft of the sensor is free to rotate and will turn as the sensor is withdrawn. The sensors are hard to remove because they are a tight fit (for obvious reasons) and when you add 10+ years of oil/grease/dust/dirt they get kind of glued in place. If guessing you were just 'breaking the seal' while you were turning the engine and it came out easy.

yeah that makes sense but why then do some people claim that the engine will run fine without it and also others claim that it ran crap and then ran good when they replaced it?

The coil pack engines use wasted spark, so as far as ignition goes it makes no difference if the ecu can see the cam angle sensor or not.

On the injection side, the ecu cant guarantee batch firing on the correct stroke without it. This is not that big of a deal because the firing of the injector is not really timed that well anyway - injectors 1,3, and 5 open all at the same time, then on the next revolution of the crank stroke 2, 4 and 6 open. The worst case is the ecu fires the injectors on the wrong stroke and the fuel hangs around in the runners for 1/2 a rpm longer. This can make idle go a bit rough and fuel economy can suffer slightly but the power will still be the same.

The AU engines have pseudo-sequential efi so the difference is more noticeable.