single wire OXS: how it works?

[Ti Kan]

Konstantin Bogach writes:
> I see that single wire O2 sensor is almost twice chipper than 3 wire
> one.  I have a question:  why is that?   What I lose if I buy single
> wire sensor?

If your car came with a 3-wire sensor then you should always use a
3-wire sensor.

Older models used to have the sensor mounted right on the exhaust
manifold, and the heat from the manifold is sufficient to keep the
sensor at the correct operating temperature.  Newer models have the
sensor(s) mounted further downstream of the exhaust and are electrically
heated (hence the extra wires for the built-in heating element).  They
warm up faster and the car can go into close-loop operation sooner
after a cold start.  If you use a single-wire sensor in place of the
3-wire it may not ever get hot enough to function correctly.

Sorry, this is not a part to save money on.

-Ti
01 S4 2.7 biturbo quattro
84 5000S 2.1 turbo
80 4000 2.0
-- 
    ///  Ti Kan                Vorsprung durch Technik
   ///   AMB Research Laboratories, Sunnyvale, CA. USA
  ///    ti at amb.org
 //////  http://www.ibiblio.org/tkan/
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