Oxygen Sensor Issues

MrOldLude · Mar 16th, 2006, 02:49 AM

Background: My truck is a 97 4x4 (4 cyl, obviously)

I'm driving downstate, the roads conditions are pretty nasty. First areas of packed snow, and then later salty slush. I put about 300 miles on the road, and stop for gas. I get going again and the CEL lights up. I figured it was the usual gas-cap evap code until my truck started acting up.

I'd be cruising and then it'd feel like it'd simply lose a big chunk of power and begin feeling really sluggish. Usually, within 30 seconds, it'd correct itself. Also, I found that if it started feeling sluggish, and I went to WOT, it'd correct the sluggishness and get back to cruising, albeit temporarily.

I get to my destination and have my friend check and clear my code. Oxygen sensor, "bank 1." Well, I only have one cylinder bank.

Question 1: Bank 1 - I'd assume this is a fault of the first O2 sensor on the exhaust manifold. Not the post-cat sensor. Correct?

Question 2: If the second sensor was defective instead, would it cause driveability issues? I'm trying to verify the culprit conclusively. Mostly if this code if a result of the ECU reading a bad voltage from the first sensor. Not the difference between the first and the second sensor.

Question 3: The friend mentioned that salty conditions can cause errors. I intend to give it a hard power-wash, especially on the chassis very soon. Ever hear anything similar?

Question 4: on this page -
http://oem.thepartsbin.com/parts/the...y=All&dp=false

They list 3 sensors as oem replacements. The first picture is a totally different unit than the other two:

versus

Will this cause any problems?

Thanks in advance.

jerryp58 · Mar 16th, 2006, 07:20 AM

I'm not sure about the answers to your questions, but have you considered you may have gotten bad gas? I'd try some Dry-Gas in case the gas had some water in it.

Does the CEL go out at WOT? I would think if the O2 sensor was that confused and crippling operation it wouldn't correct itself at WOT, but that could be a whole other set of parameters and I could be way wrong.

MrOldLude · Mar 16th, 2006, 08:09 AM

On the bad gas, it's unlikely. I burned through 4 tanks from different locations after it started. The CEL does not go off at WOT. The difference between normal running and WOT is open and closed loop cycles. Closed loop is for better emissions mostly and fuel savings and occurs while the engine is up to temp. Open loop is where the fuel control, the best I can understand it, is less. It occurs at both cold-starts and and WOT, and is characterized by adding more gas to the cycle.

What I'm figuring is it's jumping to a different fuel-map when a put the pedal down, and when the issue returns is when the measured voltage off the O2 sensor spikes or falls.