Thread: Regrounding the O2 Sensor

Well as long as you get it from RockAuto ebay store you should be fine. I've bought 3 from them with 0 problems. The two reasons for that, eBay gave me $10 off, and I can pay with paypal easily .

But as for LikeTheMovies, I believe he got it from Autozone or Advance Auto, they sell them for the same price as Rock Auto.

Agreed, Rock ebay maybe fine but Im talking about non-parts distributor dealers... Joe Smoe purchasing wholesale remag O2 sensors by the crate and selling them on ebay.. O2 sensors dont have the part number on it, so they just sell them as a replacement with no idea what sensor that is the correct one for a car...
Bosch does have a free printed translation catalog for imprinted codes-to-model tables.

Dont trust ebay for thermostats, O2 sensors, IACV, MAF, starters, altys, water pumps or any other long term replacement item (items that should last at least 60k miles).

Believe it or not: Our NGK Double Plat spark plugs is suppose to last for 40-50k miles... They never do but they are suppose to @ $12+ each...

Yes sir, I can agree to that. Learned my lesson about buying the O2 sensors haha.

I thought the Plat plugs were supposed to be replaced every 60k? That's what it says on my hood hehe.

My wife's car had some platinums in it and they worked great until just last year. They were the stock ones by the looks of the wear. Gaps were over .055" and the car still ran just fine, but they had nasty "coral reef" deposits on them hahah.

The stock plugs (NGK G power) are good to at least 60K under normal driving conditions. I've seen the new Laser Iridiums and Laser platinums go over 115K on the B15 sentras until the coilpacks burn out. Any double platinum that is well engineered should go 100K miles.

Back to O2 sensors. The sensors are very sensitive to mishandling. There are chances that if you buy one online and it is shipped incorrectly it could be damaged from drops etc.

I wanna say thats the case with spark plugs too, oh especially knock sensors hehe.

Knock sensors are interesting though, because they can easily be knocked out of calibration. Even more interesting is that you can knock them back into calibration by dropping them hahaha. If you do a resistance check and it is bad, then you have nothing to lose by dropping it to see if you can get it to read correctly right? My friend had a knock sensor circuit malf on his Altima, and after playing with it and dropping it a few times it checked out good!

He put it back on and hasn't had any issues since. Weird huh?

Ha that's interesting. My knock sensor had a nice warning paper on it. From what I recall it said to disregard the sensor if you dropped it... ha

Honestly it could just be back luck..... You know one of those that just won't work..... It happened to me with my temp sensor.... It was brand new and just wouldn't work

1. Yes, says it on the box.
2. Yes checked it out, ended up being wire for wire same colors. Middle was black 2 outside's were white.
3. Everything looked alright, only thing that may be bad is when i had the stocked extended one on there it had crimps and theres still crimps before the actual plug that came with the 02 sensor.
4. Haven't checked that but I would doubt but will check tomorrow.
5. Grounded to the front of the block where the oil separator is bolted to. Didn't wanna run a long wire to the intake manifold.
6. Bought it at advanced auto and I have a full 1 year warranty on it. Should I try a new one?

Thanks for the info..

Dont know what type of crimps that you are describing, but that can't be a good thing. If the crimps are cutting into the wires and the Green Wire death has invaded/deteriorated the wires inside, then that maybe your problem. Go to the junkyard, find a Nissan/Infiniti with a 3 or 4 wire O2 sensor, cut the wire off before the connectors (taking both male & female connectors), and then cut the wire off the O2 sensor. Now you have a good & long stretch of wire with both connectors for this mod. I like the 4 wire O2 sensor connectors; as it allows for a clean sealed connection for the new O2 sensor but it requires cutting/splicing the harness connector. Use quality connectors with shrinkable covers (solder & wrapping tape is not going to last long with the extreme heat & vibrations).

You may have already ruined/fried this O2 sensor heater by taking your shortcuts & not following the instructions as outlined in this thread. I would take it back to the store for another one.. Then Start over and do this properly.. Remember, the O2 sensor is an electronic device: requires solid power and proper grounding to operate correctly.

As for the grounding screw, theres a reason why grounding it to the block is NOT correct. From many test, we have found the best results were to ground the O2 on the same grounding surface as all other engine sensors & the ecu... The ECU is using the same grounding surface as all engine sensors EXCEPT the O2 sensor... Using the Exhaust Mani as a ground was a flaw in the original design of the harness and was corrected by the manufacturers in later models. So although you may think your grounding surface is good (and it maybe good for other purposes; battery, lights, etc), but its does NOT have the SAME grounding properties/characteristics as the intake manifold. Thus if you tested the ground for both surfaces, you will definitely see a difference. The difference is translated into O2 signal strength and the effectiveness of this mod.

So stop being lazy and run the grounding wires to the intake mani where it belongs! !
This mod can be just as effective as the MAF mod if done properly.. You will be surprised !