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Cars built since the late 1970s typically have oxygen sensors. They might have 1, 2, 3, or 4 wires, and they were originally (almost) all what we now call a narrowband oxygen sensor.
Wideband sensors work on a completely different principle, but thankfully they are more unusual. They were first used by Toyota in 1997 on a few vehicles, with full production in the 1998 model year. And to make it more confusing, the companies who put a wideband up in the exhaust pipe near the engine may use narrowband sensors in the exhaust stream after the catalytic converter.
An electronic fuel injection enhancer, or EFIE, is an aftermarket circuit that we sell to enhance the action of hydrogen. The EFIE is actually a major part of a hydrogen on-demand system in a gasoline/petrol engine because without an EFIE, the engine's computer will simply adjust itself to waste fuel. It's not the computer's fault, it is simply programmed to adjust itself when it detects a worn-out oxygen sensor. By adding hydrogen, the ECM or PCM in your car thinks the oxygen sensor is wearing out.
The units we sell essentially work on any vehicle with a few minor exceptions. There is a relatively rare situation in which the oxygen sensors are an unusual design and that prevents our system from working with the oxygen sensor... There are some Toyota and Lexus vehicles which are known to have those, mainly 1998 to present. They use what is referred to as an Air Fuel Ratio sensor, or AFR.
Remember that many wideband O2 sensors have 5 or 6 wires. Some have 4 wires, just like a standard narrowband O2 sensor. So if you have a 5-wire sensor like on many Chrysler vehicles, it is almost for sure a wideband sensor.
If you follow these instructions, then you will be able to know what type of O2 sensor you have. It usually works for vehicles sold in the US.
How to determine what kind of Oxygen Sensor your vehicle has
- Go to http://www.autozone.com/
- Sign up and register
- Login to Autozone.com
- Add your vehicle. It will ask you for year, make, model, engine, and transmission, etc.
- Now select "Repair Info" on the left of the screen
- Select the vehicle repair guide, electrical wiring guide
- You will often find a diagram that may tell you where the oxygen sensor is, and what type it is.
Alternately, and for MAP or MAF sensors, try this process
- Go to Autozone.com and type "sensor" into their search page
- Choose oxygen sensor, AFR sensor, MAP sensor, PCM, ECU, etc.
- View the parts which are shown and on the product pages, it will tell you the type of sensor on your car.
- Look on the right column and see if there is a repair guide for the sensor. It will explain how to find and replace the oxygen sensor, ECM, and it will often show you the pinouts for each component.
Here is another method:
- Go to http://www.olyonline.com/
- Go to Parts Catalog under "Our Parts"
- Enter your Vehicle's Year, Make, Model, and Engine
- Choose Fuel & Emission
- Choose Emission Parts
- Look for a "Fuel to Air Ratio Sensor" that is roughly $200 to $300.
- Oxygen Sensors may also be listed separately, roughly $40 to $200.
- There may be some good pictures of the sensor and its connector.
A "Fuel to Air Ratio Sensor" is what we called a wideband oxygen sensor.
If you see that your car has a wideband sensor, and it is a 5-wire or 6-wire, then you can use the Power Box 3 and most standard EFIE units. If it has a wideband 4-wire AFR sensor, please contact us for a solution.
Here is a sample list of vehicles reported to have a wideband O2 sensor. We will try to update this list when we work with more. Few if any wideband sensors existed before 1998, and we are unsure about specific models. When you suspect you have a wideband sensor
NOT ALL ENGINES, MODELS LISTED!!
- Acura 2.4, 3.5 L
- Audi A4 1.8
- BMW 2.5, 4.4, 5.0 L
- Cadillac Catera 3.0 L
- Chrysler ??
- Dodge ??
- Infiniti 3.5L
- Lexus, most models, post 1998
- Honda Civic, Accord (may need both wideband and narrowband on late models)
- Volkswagen Beetle, Jetta, Golf, Passat, Eurovan 1.8, 2.0, 2.8, 4.0 L
- Mazda ??
- Porsche 911
- Saturn L Series 3.0 L
- Subaru Legacy, Outback
- Toyota, most models, post 1998
- Volvo S60,S70,C70,S80 2.3, 2.4, 2.8, 2.9 L
And lastly, we sell a custom wideband EFIE solution for those customers who require it. But we generally do not offer it as an option on the website. It is better not to mention them for a number of reasons, not the least of which are our opinions of the wideband EFIE we sometime sell. Here is the honest opinion of the wideband EFIE, copied from an email back in March 2009:
"Obviously I don't necessarily want to sell him a [wideband] EFIE that will not automatically fluctuate and keep his ECM guessing. While I think the [wideband] EFIE would work, I won't exactly go out of my way to solve it with [this product]..." "[We have purchased] from this company before, and they look in person as bad as they do on the website. Radio Shack. Might as well put rabbit ears or a whip antenna (and a tennis ball) on your car and paint the hood primer gray."
So, in other words, here are the drawbacks of the wideband EFIE units available to us and to our customers:
1. Feature poor. They do not automatically adjust. There is no artificial intelligence which fools the car's ECM. It is a rather simplistic circuit.
However, the wideband EFIEs are effective... but there is room for improvement.
2. Aesthetically challenged. The wideband EFIE units look, in our opinion, like a "Radio Shack" breadboard with some transistors and resistors stapled to it, some cheesy knobs, and maybe a cheap plastic box.
This Radio Shack look is not normally an issue if it weren't for the fact that we need these boxes in Lexus and certain German and Japanese cars. We prefer not to use this caliber of product unless out of need.
OTHER THAN THOSE 2 MAJOR DRAWBACKS, WE DO SOMETIMES NEED AND USE WIDEBAND EFIEs BECAUSE THEY DO WORK FOR MANY CUSTOMERS.
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