You may have damaged the wire harness. Im not sure what ill effects PB Blaster may have on an O2 sensor. If you could not get the sensor off, i highly doubt that it pentrated deep enough to touch the actual sensing part. Perhaps you may have oversprayed onto the wires causing some problem.

Whats the story with changing your O2 sensor now? Are the threads completley stripped? You will likely need to take the car to a muffler shop and have them drop the entire exhaust to get it the plug out now.

No amount of screw loose / PB blaster alone would loosen up the O2 sensor on mine. It took that, a propane torch and a hell of alot of pulling on a wrench to get it loose.

 

I wonder what that would cost? I haven't tried anything yet today. Was woing to leave it alone until after the auto-x school on the 30th. Had abad feeling I would make things worse or brake something else. Was thinking about heating it up with a torch and then using vise grips to get it off. I am very annoyed with it.

 

I doubt vise grips would give you enough leverage to get it loose.. If the boxed end of a wrench still catches the threads, you still have a reasonable chance of getting it loose. Heat the sucker up with a propane torch for 30 seconds, spray it with screw loose right afterwards (while its still hot!), then work it with the wrench.

If you need an extra hand, let me know. Im around on the weekends.

If the threads are completley stripped, try the vise grips...though i would bet you will have more sucess with a large pipe wrench. The biggest problem changing the O2 sensor on these cars is that you cannot get any reasonable amount of leverage to break it loose unless you have the car on a lift.

 

Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but did you remove the sensor, and leave it out? A bloody great hole in the downpipe won't help! Apologies if I grabbed the wrong end of the stick....

 

Is screw loose the same as PB blaster?

 

Screw Loose is made by CRC. Not sure how different they are in terms of chemical makeup or which is more effective. But the general use of both products is the same, unfreeze rusted / corroded nuts and bolts. Most will call them penetrating oils.

 

OK. Thanks for the offer. Might take you up on it if I need help.

 

I was never able to get tho O2 sensor out.

 

Last night I think I determined that it was the O2 sensor. when I unplugged it the idle got better and when I plugged it in it started to sputter, stall and act sporadically. This morning when I left for work it was worse than ever BUT it seemed to get better on the way. This afternoon after work it was fine. Drove it around for few hours without any problem. Drove to auto parts store it was great. REturned the O2 sensor I bought and the problem started again before I got home.

If it is the O2 sensor what could it be that is causing it to act up sporadically? Could it be something else. Was so happy when it seemd to have fixed itself.

 

It's probably a connection inside the sensor gone mental. Go get that new sensor again.......

 

Just a thought - I had a wierd idle issue and tracked it down to my vacuum lines. If you haven't replaced them, you may want to give that a go. I got mine from Lindsay Racing. $35 or so with shipping. However, I have heard guys just buying bulk line from any auto parts store. (Needs to be heat resistant)

 

Why bother trying to diagnose whats wrong with the O2 sensor? Its a replaceable part, thats inexpensive...besides you obviously felt it needed to be changed if you attempted it in the first place. Your going to have to address the issue eventually...why not just spend the money on fixing it permanetley rather than wasting time and money on fixing something temporary at best.

 

You are probably right. Got excited when it started to run ok. It is running good again. Will have to come to terms though and replace it sooner rather than later (which is easier said than done).

Only reason I was replacing it was in the hopes of getting better gas mileage. Besides that the car ran fine.