O2 sensors... [Archive] - TorontoMazda3

dentinger

09-18-2007, 12:57 PM

ok, my friend came up with a good point today while we were installing my Vibrant headers.

apparently, the first sensor is a Air/Fuel sensor, and the second one is a oxygen sensor.

now with the stock exhaust, the stock air/fuel sensor is where the 4 tubes meet up, so the car gets a reading on ALL the cylinders.
now with the Vibrant, the bung for the sensor is in the tube from the 3rd cylinder (or second).
so my friend thinks we should relocate that bung to where all 4 tubes meet up.
cuz right now, if the 4th cylinder dies, or sometihng happens to it, the sensor would pick up on that.

so wat should i do?? just put it in the spot where vibrant has it? .....or??

do you guys understand wat im saying??

midnightfxgt

09-18-2007, 01:33 PM

If you loose a cylinder you will know pretty quickly! lol....

The car runs fine with it in the supplied 02 bung from Vibrant right? Adam (Bubba) has had his on the longest, maybe he has done a Drive-Clean with it.... but outside of that, I dont see much of a reason to change.

bubba1983

09-18-2007, 04:58 PM

heres my common sence on teh issue...
they have the bung there i would assume for a reason, as they have put alot of time and money into something liek this....
the car runs fine for me, correct..other than a small issue im having fixed, but its probably not related...
i havn't done a drive clean on mine yet, but i can't see it NOT passing honestly. not much of help on this issue, sorry fellas...

dentinger

09-18-2007, 06:13 PM

midnightfxgt

09-18-2007, 08:03 PM

ok, i talked to Budget Exhaust, and they agreed with me/my friend too.
i should put the air/fuel sensor AFTER the tubes meet.

so i will see how things pan out.

oh, and be careful with the air/fuel sensor.... i new one is $260 from mazda

and is it okay if i cut the sensor wires, and extend them?? like, will that cause any problems?

Cutting the wires and extending a few inches wont hurt anything (unless its a hack job LOL :))

Budget Exhaust would probably agree, seeing as how you will bring it to them for the work right? Bit of a conflict of interest. If the car runs fine as is, what is the purpose of this? If it makes you feel better knowing your reading the same exact spot as stock, go for it.... but I dont see any other reason :whoa

-John

bubba1983

09-18-2007, 08:17 PM

are you close to master performance? they know alllll too well abotu teh vibrant setup....don't hurt to check them out!

dentinger

09-18-2007, 08:46 PM

im in burlington, so im guessing Master performance is in TO somewhere??

do they have a email or website at all??

bubba1983

09-18-2007, 08:58 PM

google is your friend grasshopper
http://www.masterperformance.ca/

09-19-2007, 12:58 AM

You can hit it in 25 mins from burlington. Wouldn't hurt to make the trip up.

bubba1983

09-19-2007, 08:16 AM

i do the 40min trip from kitchener

dentinger

09-19-2007, 12:59 PM

alright, i finally have the header's installed.
and damn does that sound nice!!

HOWEVER!
i have to gut the sheild of the stock cat, cuz its rattling like a bitch.
i got a CEL, but im 95% sure that its from not having the Oxygen senson there. lol, its not even on the car right now. and it took me a good 15 minutes to get the CEL. lol

bubba1983

09-19-2007, 03:45 PM

the funny and wierd thing about it...when vibrant origionally test fitted the header on my car in december i believe it was...i went a good 2-3 months with no CEL, then it came on...now its been intermittent

dentinger

09-19-2007, 04:00 PM

wat was causing the CEL's??
did u ever get them checked out?

dentinger

09-19-2007, 04:03 PM

oh, and i'll be getting a drive clean soon (not to be sent to the gov't, just a test drive clean).

i just wanna know if my car will still pass

bubba1983

09-19-2007, 04:11 PM

i figure that the cel's were caused by the sensors not returning the proper reading....or something...olol

dentinger

09-19-2007, 11:18 PM

ah. i'll be clearing the codes tomorow at class, and hopefully fixing that DAMN rattle!!

bubba1983

09-20-2007, 02:25 AM

ive gotten used to the rattle, its a part of how i drive now! haha

dentinger

09-20-2007, 11:48 AM

ok, i found out wat the rattle is.....

the Resonator on my magnaflow catback. WTF!?
so im going to see if its covered under warranty later today.
which i so hope it is

bubba1983

09-20-2007, 02:32 PM

thats wierd. my rattle is the heat sheilding by the firewall
i had an issue with the exhaust after i got the header put on, the pipe was expanding a bit too much and rattling against the rear subframe...

dentinger

09-20-2007, 02:35 PM

the pipe was expanding a bit too much and rattling against the rear subframe...

hmm.... that might be wat my problem is too.... cuz the rattle on my car only happens after a good 1-2 km's of driving, once everything heats up.

anyways, im going to budget exhaust later today, to see wat they say it could be.

also, i noticed the exhaust sits a bit lower now after the install.... so that could have something to do with it too....

bubba1983

09-20-2007, 02:43 PM

yours should be ok, cause its the production unit of the header...mine was the test unit....that problem was fixed with me. it wasn't a rattle i was getting, it was a real nasty loud noise.
what happened was with the extra exhaust gas flow thru the piping, the extra heat involved expanded the exhaust tubing just enuff to rattle against the sub frame.
this was corrected free of charge by vibrant, and they then re worked the length of the header to compensate for this...

Azi

09-20-2007, 03:19 PM

i dont think that the front sensor measures air/fuel ratio. it doesn't make sense to me, cause the sensor is a narrow band sensor. there is no way it can accurately measure the ratio. iirc, the 2 sensors are there to measure the gas before and after entering the cat. if they both read the same, then it signals the light for the cat being bad, or a sensor being bad. it may adjust the fuel in the system to warm up the cat or something, but i dont think its there for a/f

dentinger

09-20-2007, 04:35 PM

well thats wat the mazda parts guy told me over at Burlington mazda.

Cosmo77

11-08-2007, 11:38 PM

So you removed the frnt 02 sensor all together? I would of left it in the cyl #2 header pipe. It would no matter what tube it is in. This is not an f1 engine....things are not that exact, but they are still pretty exact. The front air/fuel sensor is an 02 sensor, but it reads mA instead of V/dc.

DO NOT lengthen the wires, they are shielded wires and are meant to be a particular length.

Cosmo

dentinger

11-09-2007, 12:03 AM

bubba1983

11-09-2007, 08:21 AM

lucky bastard...im still snatchin the random cel all the tiem haha

Cosmo77

11-09-2007, 01:37 PM

well i cut and extended the sensor's wires anyways....
they're supposed to be cut and extended.
ive had my header in for over a month now, and ive had ZERO cel's from it.

and i still have both sensors... they're just in different locations now.

Wow great job then....the common DIY person usually gets something mixed up when lengthening the wires...I thought you were having a CEL problem. When done properly the 02 wires can be extended. But most times the car is not taken in the job.

p.s. how do the headers sound and did it pass the drive clean?

dentinger

11-09-2007, 10:44 PM

the headers made my exhaust about twice as loud, which is good! lol
as for emissions... i might get on that soon.... as im not going to be putting in a high flow cat any time soon.
and ive been thinking about just running a 'test pipe' and no resonator until i can afford a Vibrant cat back....
my goal is to be able to shoot flames lol

stevenlung

11-09-2007, 11:06 PM

One of my best friend is a certified emission technican, from what he told me, he never seen a car with highflow cat passed the emission (I mean only one highflow cat, no more other cat), he said when I saw someone wrote on the forums saying it'll pass n sh!t, they are BS

my friend said guys like me with vibrant header and vibrant exhaust is going to fail the test big time

my other friend who owns a Si, he has header and cat-back with one highflow cat (magnaflow i believe), he said he failed the emission big time, 4x over the standard, he said luckily those fake emission cert isn't that expersive

dentinger

11-10-2007, 02:13 PM

well, we'll see wat happens...
maybe i'll be able to get a test done tonite, or next week some time...

bubba1983

11-11-2007, 03:13 PM

^^ let us know

dentinger

11-11-2007, 03:22 PM

yupp, i just trying to persuade my friend i work with to do a 'test' drive clea (so it doesnt get sent to the gov't).
hopefully it'll get done by the end of the month.
and the test will be done with:
a CAI, headers, stock cat, and magnaflow catback installed.

bubba1983

11-11-2007, 03:31 PM

how much do the "test" drive cleans cost anyways?

dentinger

11-11-2007, 03:56 PM

i dunno, i didnt even know you could do 'test' DC's until my friend did one on his jetta.
i work at CT, so i'll just get my friend to do mine for me...