Help problems with universal o2 sensor

atlneon03 · Post by **atlneon03** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 10:19 am

Tuesday I installed a universal o2 sensor. Wednesday morning when i cranked it up after about 5 mins the engine light came on. Drove about 40-50 miles with light on. When i returned home i swiched the two white wires, reset the computer and after about 3 mins light came back on. Switched wires back, reset computer again light has not came back on, but now when i start it up and go to drive it loses power and acts like its going to cut off. Then after about 1 min its fine. Just does that everytime i go to start. So i switched the wires again last night light still off and when i first went to drive it did the same thing, but after sitting over night, this morning when i went to leave no problem. Wondering if it's okay or what kind of ideas does anyone have? Thank You

kc2005ptgt · Post by **kc2005ptgt** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 11:28 am

I didn't think that the universal o2's worked on our cars... where did you get said o2 sensor?

atlneon03 · Post by **atlneon03** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 11:53 am

From autozone

kc2005ptgt · Post by **kc2005ptgt** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 12:26 pm

I have heard that those do not work in our cars... there is actually another thread discussing just this same topic, I think below this post

maybe in engine forum, can not remember.

atlneon03 · Post by **atlneon03** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 12:47 pm

From autozone

Post by **occasional demons** » Fri Aug 24, 2007 12:38 pm

The white wires are for the heater. The polarity shouldn't matter-kinda like a light bulb. Not sure which the gray and black are (+/-) but they're color coded so proper connection is not an issue. Did you change the sensors as routine maint. or was there other problems? if it ran better with oem than it does now, re-install and see if the problem goes away.

Edit: White: heater circuit ground wire
White: heater circuit positive wire
Gray: sensor circuit ground wire
Black: sensor circuit positive wire
But either way the white shouldn't make a difference, other wise one would have a tracer color.
A tech at the dealer told me that the upstream and downstream use the same ground path in the pcm so if one is intenerally shorting it can/will effect the other.