Front oxygen sensor

Umpalumpa

Looking for advice

Engine warning light popped up on my 05 Avensis.I brought it to the garage and he said it's the front oxygen sensor.A new one costs €220 fitted where as he suggested getting on from a scrap yard for about €40.
Can I continue to drive with this problem as I'm leaning towards getting the part from the scrap yard but might take a while to find a scrap yard with the part.

How long can I wait before my car stops driving?

colm_mcm

www.partfinder.ie

Matt Simis

For EUR40 you can buy a Universal type online. For EUR60 you can buy a Bosch original type that you can splice into your harness.

I wouldnt buy a used Oxygen (lambda) sensor unless you know the mileage and state of it. They just arent expensive enough (outside main dealer) to bother buying used.

jimmyw

Umpalumpa wrote: »

How long can I wait before my car stops driving?

That sensor is not really going to affect the actually driving of the car, its more to do with the emissions/fuel mixture, but it should still be sorted none the less.

Umpalumpa

Cheers for the reply.THe mechanic wasn't to bothered about fixing it quickly and said I can drive with it for as months without it ever be owing an issue.
Is he right?

wes31

apart from the massive amount of excess fuel your engine will be burning at nearly 160.9 a litre i would be looking at replacing the sensor.

Kid Nothing

If that's what your mechanic said then I'd be looking at seeing someone who knows what they're talking about! A faulty reading from a lambda sensor will effect your air fuel mixture causing problems with fuel consumption and more importantly emissions. You could be looking at a new cat in a few months of you drive on it not to mention the amount of excess carbon that'll be building up in the engine.

Get it sorted as soon as you can, it mightn't even be a faulty sensor, could quiet easily be something causing the sensor to read faulty. E.g. Air leaks, leaking injectors, etc

The Master.

Oxygen sensor lol. That sounds like a makey up part. Did he also offer to check the polarity of your reverse trumpets?

Plug

Ask your mechanic what was the short term fuel trim and long term fuel trim.

Plug

The Master. wrote: »

Oxygen sensor lol. That sounds like a makey up part. Did he also offer to check the polarity of your reverse trumpets?

:rolleyes:

They do exist you know.

SouperComputer

Oxygen sensor is a reasonable description. Some call it O2, some call it lambda. Its role is to monitor the amount of oxygen present in the exhaust gases. So technically its more of an oxygen sensor than lambda as the lamba figure is derived from the monitored presence of oxygen.

Anyway, OP all too often these sensors get replaced when in fact the issue lies elsewhere, common example as pointed out is a vacuum leak. It will throw an O2 sensor code of some description but the sensor itself will in fact be fine. Or at least will be until it gets fouled up from the excess carbon.
Plug gave good advise about the fuel trim. Ideally you will want to get this along with the specific OBD code(s) that the car is providing before changing parts willy-nilly.

The downstream O2 sensor is usually only used to monitor cat efficiency, however the upstream one is used by the engine to adjust the A/F mixture and will affect fuel efficiency and performance if its not working properly.

Its unlikely that your car will "stop driving" anytime soon, but if the car is running rich you run the risk of fouling plugs and clogging your cat(s). Things start to get much more expensive then.

My advice would be to get more solid info on what exactly the car is "saying" and decide on a course of action from there.