O2 sensor socket

[Bitsyncmaster]

Since this is not needed on the D, thought I'd post it here. Had to change the wife's sensor in her Impala. It set a check engine light that said the heater current was bad. Well her car has two O2 sensors so I guessed it the the "pre cat" one. Bought it and went to change it. There was no way you could get an open end wrench on it. Back to auto zone and they have a "split" socket attached to a crows foot. Only $10 and it works like a champ.

I drove the car around and checked that no codes got set so I think I guessed right that the pre cat sensor was the problem.:wiggle:

[Dangermouse]

I wonder if you could have unplugged one sensor, driven it for a while and then checked the codes.

Now getting only a "missing sensor signal" would have told you that you had guessed the right one. Getting both a "missing sensor" and "faulty heater" would have told you it was the other one.

Having said all that, I doubt that the codes would have been that helpful.

I had a V6 chevy truck last year that some enterprising individual decided to lighten by removing the Y-pipe with the two cats. He took the two post cat sensors with him but left the pre-cat ones in the stub of pipe that he left behind. So I got to remove those two, which was a lot of fun. Not.

Didn't run a scan on it as it was a little loud. :)

[Bitsyncmaster]

Actually I probably could have just used an ohm meter to find an open heater but it's not that easy accessing the connectors.

Don't know why the codes do not tell you which sensor is at fault. By the way, that sensor at auto-zone was about $54.

So if any of you get the same code.....this may help you guess correct.

[Ron]

Curious: What year? code #?

[Bitsyncmaster]

Curious: What year? code #?

The new sensor was a Bosch unit. Just a normal 4 wire heated narrow band sensor.

2004 Impala, 3.4 L 6 cyl.

I looked on line and they sold some cheaper but those were general purpose sensors without connectors.

[Ron]

Some scanners will give you the trouble code stored, but with a generic description. For example, on your car, a P0131 and P0132 both deal with O2 sensor voltage problems. A scanner may say anything from "HO2S sensor or circuit" for both, or it can point you closer to the problem, for example,
""P0131:
The PCM detects that the HO2S 1 voltage is less than 79 mV, for more than 51 seconds.
OR
The PCM detects that the HO2S 1 voltage is less than 600 mV, during power enrichment (PE) mode, for more than 7.5 seconds.""

With "HO2S 1", the "1" tells you upstream. If a downstream sensor had a problem it would say "HO2S 2", or "HO2S Bank 1, Sensor 2...."

Tip: You can look at the appropriate online chart (not all are the same!) and get more details, if it even gives you the P-code