Mongo

If that was directed to me, it would've been a dinner at McCormick & Kuletto's here in San Francisco if you were right.

Fortunately that is for the fiancee and that is where the wallet is going too.

Landseer

The bosch universal has an adapter kit.
But you can also buy a 90 Ford Taurus Bosch, which is cheaper here occasionally by 35%, clip the ends, and solder or crimp it.
Lots of lore about air path and crimp, but after 30 hours of searching no definitive confirmation.
In fact, confirmation that its needed and confirmation that its absolutely not needed.
Possible misinformation to lead folks back to the more costly universal bosch kit instead of a universal bosch sensor for a range of cars.
I've done both solder and crimp on these and other cars and all are operating.

dprantl

I have also crimped and soldered many mustang O2 sensors to other cars and never had any running problems or problems passing emissions with those cars... YMMV

Dan
'91 928GT S/C 475hp/460lb.ft

Larry928GTS

Directly from Bosch:
http://apps.bosch.com.au/motorsport/...xygenlsm11.pdf

Landseer

Well, Larry, I guess that's why you drive a GTS and I work on all the dregs.

Point made. I'll crimp them.

fraggle

hey we'll see how it all turns out!

I fought my idle/stall issue for about three weeks, figured it was something I did with my motor rebuild.

I had installed a new O2 sensor at the same time due to the old one's wiring cooking and shorting together. Ernest (ew928) suggested I check the connections. Crimped = FIXED.

dr bob

Mine has worked for years now with soldered/heatshrinked connection on universal sensor. Are there any serious symptoms to look for? Most soldering warnings are based on a concern for a galvanic junction. A properly soldered connection is mechanically and electrically stable before solder is added, so there's no real chance of a galvanic junction muddying the readings. The 'reference air through the cable' can't really mean 'reference air through the individual wires within the cable', can it? The insulation on all three individual wires is way tight, while the jacket/sleeve around them has a better chance of room for some airflow.

Landseer

I thought it might be some misdirection by bosch to direct folks to their special "universal" unit with the fancy fittings. Hard to believe. But who knows.

Z

The soldering warning in this case has nothing to do with the possibility of corrosion, dissimilar metals, stress points, or anything like that. The wire is the typical multistrand type, not the single solid conductor type. The reference air flows through the space between the individual strands. The insulation of the wire basically acts as an air tight tube for the reference air to pass through to the sensor. It's not in that document liked to above, but Bosch actually has a specification for the flow rate of air that must pass through the wire at a specified pressure.

If the connection is soldered, the solder can wick between the individual wire strands, beyond just the stripped portion, and into the area under the insulation. That will plug or restrict the reference air passageway. Bosch does say that soldering can be used, but that there must then be either a crimped or screw type connection somewhere between the soldered joint and the sensor. That would then be the location where the reference air is able to enter.

The reference air going through the wire is also why Bosch says not to use any of that electrical grease or any kind of chemical contact cleaner on the connections of the O2 sensor plug. Besides possibly obstructing the reference air flow, the grease or chemicals can also affect the quality of the air that does reach the sensor. The O2 sensor compares the exhaust from the engine to what's assumed to be fresh air in determining what the composition of the exhaust is, and whether the engine is running rich or lean of an ideal mixture. Reference air that's contaminated with various chemicals can cause the O2 sensor signal to be inaccurate because it's basically polluted air that's being used as the reference instead of fresh air. I suspect that might be part of the reason that the O2 sensor connector is located inside the passenger compartment, instead of under the car, where it might be suceptible to exhaust leaks, oil, fumes, etc. that might contaminate the reference air. For those of you with an Innovate wide band setup, it would be the equivalent of doing your "free air calibration" with the sensor still in an exhaust filled exhaust system.

In case anyone is still skeptical about air being able to pass through the cable, take a section of the cable from an old sensor, stick one end in a glass of water, and blow in the other end. You'll see bubbles coming out of the submerged end.

Some more documentation directly from Bosch on the topic of soldering the wires:

Landseer

Mongo, any new results?

Cosmo Kramer

I think there is something going on with the O2, if it is disconnected and the car runs better then it must be giving false info to the LH causing the problem. I know it has been replaced but when you replaced it you also had issues with the fuel dampers.

If it was me I would jump on that deal for the OE sensor on Amazon so you can take the O2 out of the equation.

Mongo

No not till this weekend. The weather is too unpredictable to work on it here. It's also pitch black when I get home from work now..

I have seen enough water damage in this car these past couple of days. I seriously need to track down why I have leakage. What a PITA.

Mrmerlin

if the Ce panel is getting wet then the most likely place is from the bottom of the blower box seal, Remove the Ce panel supports and put a towel over the Ce panel after you fold it down, this keeps all of the dirt from falling into the panel, clean out the well and the drain
remove the blower box
the motor can stay in place,
do forget to disconnect the blue vacuum line from above in the well get some 3M strip caulk from the body shop supply , replace the caulk and also the vacuum pod, Roger has them

Mongo

Wow thanks Merlin! That will definitely help keep the water out.

John Speake

While your refitting your old sensor or fitting a new one..... with crimps you have the perfect opportunity to really find out what is going on. First check you get 12v when the engine runs (is fed from the same supply as the fuel pump). You can measure the dc current going into the sensor heater, something under 1 Amp. Then when power is applied and the sensor output is connected to the LH input , you can connect your meter between the sensor NB output and ground and check that it averages around 0.5v as it oscillates from about 0.2v up to 0.8v.

If the output is stuck at 0v or 1v then the loop is not working, due to faulty sensor, faulty wiring or faulty LH ECU.