A lot of times when you scanned an intermittent oxygen sensor fault code, you will be stumped because after you changed the oxygen sensor, the code still remains. Then you give up and surrender the troubleshooting problem to a garage. This is of course will cause you more expenses and waste of your time. However, a quick check on your oxygen sensor heater wiring circuit might help you get over this nagging problem.

You see, most newer type of oxygen sensor has extra 2 wires intended for the heater element built in inside the sensor. This heater helps in getting your sensor works better by heating the sensor quickly including improved monitoring of the sensor signal wire function. Unfortunately, there is a downside on this because you have extra wires dangling around and if this heater wire insulation is shorted, the heater circuit can fail and also affect your engine computer.

As a precaution, if you have a repetitive intermittent oxygen sensor code, make sure to open up your heater wire harness and look for signs of rubbing, wire discoloration especially on wiring harness routing that are close to exhaust manifolds or metal contacts usually at the back of the cylinder head. You can also check the continuity of the heater wires from the sensor up to the engine computer terminal pins by using a wiring diagram. If you are lucky, you might find the shorted oxygen sensor heater wire that is causing you the oxygen sensor intermittent problem. If you need a wiring diagram for your oxygen sensor heater wires, please contact ATS.

Good luck!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 2:37 pm and is filed under Check Engine Light FIXES. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.