02 Sensor waste of money?

[47Rider]

Alright I searched alot of the old posts and they all seemed to point to a falty 02 sensor.My symptoms are my truck will not idol its like I have a huge cam it lopes from all most dying to 700 rpm's every time I stop.So I bought code scanner from sears and the trouble codes showed a lean oxygen sensor.Ok sounds simple enough so I went to Ford and they cant cross refrence the Bosch #"s with the ford Bosch #"s and the guy sell's me the wrong part after puting it on I realize the plug connector doesn't match! So I take it back off and he say's I looked at it and everything,(good job!)So I get my money back and go to autozone and get the right sensor put it on and the problem is not fixed.I did disconect my neg bat cable so the computer is ok.Tommorow I am going to do the scan thing again and replace the plugs with the 4+'s(I,couldn't resist)and change the fuel filter.I am going to post my simptoms again in case anyone has more ideas:On cold start it dies,after being warm it lopes from 500rpm's to almost stall,no problem in normal aceleration only on idol situation's.The problem is pretty sevier at stop light's the truck is actualy lunging,(I have actualy learned how to drive like sammy Haggar,one foot on the brake and one on the gas!)I have cleaned the MAF added a feul injector cleanor did a visual of the vacum lines.I know some threads have pointed the feul pump, or the feul presure regulator,pretty expensive guesses for a college student.Please help before I go into dept any ferther!

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91 Eddie Buar
192,000 miles

 

[Ray Lobato]

What happens if you put it in neutral, at an idle and stopped. The reason I ask this is to see if maybe your tranny isn't pulling it down by staying engaged. The "actually lunging" part makes me thing that. The only other thing I could think of would be a vaccume line leak. sometimes they can be a pain to find.

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Happy Wheelin'
Ray L.
97 XLT 4X4 4.0L SOHC
Dead Link Removed

 

[mikefox]

Have you ever heard of MotorVac. It is a service that can be performed on your rig that cleans the carbon build up in your engine. At 192,000 miles I bet there is just a little build up. My mother had this done on her car a while back. She mainly drives in town short trips. She was having poor idling and hard starting problems. Go to this site to find out what it can do for you: Dead Link Removed
I am not a seller of this only a person that has seen what it can do for a cars drivability. The plugs will probably help as well. Dead Link Removed

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mike fox
95 XLT 4D 4X4
Dynomax cat-back exhaust
Vent shades
Sony deck and 10 disc changer
Gabriel VST shocks

Future mods:
torsion twist
shackles and maybe add-a-leafs
air box mod
Westin Safari bar(being shipped 4-13 JC Whitney)
Westin nerf bars

 

[Buckshot_1]

47Rider I agree with Ray on the vacuum leak.
My dad owns a 93 sport 2wd and it did the same thing. We found that , at the back of the intake where the brakebooster and other
vac. lines a vacuum plug had fallin off.
Good luck !

 

[Ira]

47Rider,
This sounds too familar to me. Been there, and done that. My problem was a check engine light intermittently for a couple of months. Bought a fuel pressure gauge but it checked out fine. Bought a code scanner and got similar codes to yours. Changed O2 sensors almost as frequently as my underwear but still had that dreaded light sometimes.

Is your check engine light coming on? I would first check the vacuum lines for leaks. If this does not work, it may be your fuel pressure regulator. That was my problem. With mine, it would also lope at idle and sometimes tried to stall. On our models, the fuel pressure regulator will not give a specific reading for it being at fault. It will usually give a code like rich condition or lean condition and mine was giving both at the same time. I finally was lucky enough to have the gauge connected to mine while it loped. It was reading about 38 PSI and suddenly jumped to 70+ and fluctuated. This immediately told me the FPR was at fault. When I replaced it, my troubles were over. With mine, it was sticking and causing the pressures to increase and then unsticking and running normally. It has been about 3 weeks now since I changed it and I can definitely see and feel a difference. No more lights, stalling, or excessive fuel consumption. Another sign of a bad FPR is an excessively black exhaust and tailpipe. Goose it once while it is running and see what you find.

I hope this helps you out.

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Ira
91 XLT 4x4

I used to be schizophrenic, but we're OK now...No we aren't...Yes we are... shut up.

 

[Tooicky]

On my truck, the stock air intake hose had a slight crack in it and extra air was being sucked in after the mass airflow sensor, causing a rough idle. I went to a salvage yard, got one in good condition, and my problem hasn't been back since. In addition, if you have a rotten egg smell from your exhaust, replace the O2 sensor and try some sort of cat. converter cleaner, because if the cat. is plugged, your truck will run rough and have a poor idle. Also buy a can of throttle body cleaner and use it on the throttle body and the idle air control motor. Fords are common for having carbon build-up in these areas.

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'92 Ford Explorer 5-spd.
Manual Hubs, 30/9.50's MT

 

[D F Willy]

Take a look at the fuel lines to make sure none a pinched a little, another idea is check the pressure on the fuel injector pressure regulator, if you haven't ever replaced it. If all else fails, take it to a shop, some will charge about $50 to run a fuel/cleaner mixture through your engine, it cleans out a lot of carbon out of the engine, and cleans the injectors.

 

[MyExplorer]

Hello - I'm having a problem that may be related to this one. It all started out
of the blue with a rough idle. It's
blowing black smoke out as well and that
lead to me to think it was running rich.

After checking things over I noticed a
broken vacuum line. After fixing it the
problem still remains. I assumed that
being that rich and with the carbon build
up the O2 sensor was shot and may be causing
the problem. I replaced it and still, black
smoke, engine light on and rough idle.


Any help would be great!

Paul Austin
1994 Eddie Bower - 128+ K miles

 

[napnetdot]

I just got my o2 sensor replaced today (im to lazy to do it my self and to scared!) and it has fixed a buncha things (also got a major tune up) but anywas i was having a really rought idle, nasty smelling exaust and the check engine lite came on. anyways, id recommend changing it but it is expensive. Brand new one ran me like 100 bux or so.

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Joel McAllister
http://www.napnet.com/projects/truck/default.asp

92 XLT Ford Explorer 4 Door, V6 4.0 2WD Pushrod