O2 Sensor Questions

[Ti Kan]

Christopher Ritchie writes:
> 1. What happens when you run your car with the oxygen sensor disconnected?  
> If I need to do this for a while, what happens?

Without the sensor the ECU will run 'open loop' which means that you
may not get the optimum fuel air mixture for emissions, economy and
power.  Also, depending on the model of car you may get a "check engine"
light on the dashboard and/or a fault code recorded in the ECU memory.

> 2. My O2 sensor has 3 wires - 1 black, 2 white.  I had to cut them to get 
> the cat off.  When I go to hook them back up, does it make any difference 
> what white wire is connected to which white wire?

The white wires are for the heater element.  It doesn't matter which
way it's connected.

-Ti
01 S4 2.7 biturbo quattro
84 5000S 2.1 turbo
80 4000 2.0
96 A4 2.8 quattro (sold but not forgotten)
-- 
    ///  Ti Kan                Vorsprung durch Technik
   ///   AMB Research Laboratories, Sunnyvale, CA. USA
  ///    ti at amb.org
 //////  http://www.ibiblio.org/tkan/
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