Built To Last: Wideband Oxygen Sensors

By Author: vikram kuamr
Total Articles: 2912
Comment this article

No doubt about it; a wideband oxygen sensor is an investment. If you are working on an engine tuning project, it is a necessary investment to ensure that you have accurate information about the air to fuel ratio in your engine. As with any investment, you want it to last as long as possible and proper installation and maintenance are very important keys to taking care of this. An O2 sensor is sensitive to a variety of factors and making sure that it is exposed to the right environment is crucial. Roughly, what is the life of an oxygen sensor under normal use conditions?

For most models 100,000 miles or 10 years, whichever one comes first, is a reasonable estimate for the life of a wideband oxygen sensor. Again, the environment that the O2 sensor operates in as well as the installation plays an important role in whether you reach that 100,000 mile mark or fall short. If you run your engine at an overly rich level on a regular basis it is a sure way to reduce the life of your oxygen sensor. Of course if you are looking to boost the power of the engine over the life of the vehicle, you will likely run rich pretty ...
... often, but this is not an unreasonable tradeoff for power.

The location of the oxygen sensor within the exhaust is another important consideration with regard to the life of the wideband oxygen sensor. For one, the O2 sensor needs to be located in the proper position within the exhaust stream in order to be able to give accurate fuel to air ratios. An improperly positioned sensor will give you bad information and also may fail quickly if it is placed to close to where too many contaminates may reach it.

Wideband oxygen sensors are fairly sensitive to heat. Most manufacturers give a range of temperatures that the O2 sensor will operate best in and you can use your temperature gauge to determine the normal operating temperatures of your engine to determine what sensor is best. The position of the sensor again plays a role in the temperatures that are seen. The sensor should at least be placed behind the collector in order to ensure that the range of temperatures it sees is reasonable.

On the other hand if the unit is too cool this can also cause a problem. A wideband oxygen sensor has to reach a certain temperature before it can give accurate readings. A built in heating circuit is integrated into an O2 sensor to make sure that it reaches a sufficient temperature to provide accurate readings as quickly as possible.

So in general, your oxygen sensor will have a long life if it is positioned correctly within the exhaust stream to make sure that it does not see too high a range of temperatures. Also the integrated heating circuits allow the sensor to heat up quickly and provide you with accurate information on your engine's air to fuel ratio.

Author Bio.

A Wideband oxygen sensor will serve you well for many years if it is properly installed. When you purchase an o2 sensor from widebandO2sensor.com it comes with detailed information on positioning.