Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 19:04:23 EST
Reply-To: Ssittservl@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: S Sittservl <Ssittservl@AOL.COM>
Subject: Oxygen sensor and warning light
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Always eager to try out every feature of my '88 Westfalia,
I had recently, as my odometer approached 90000 miles,
been anxiously anticipating the thrill of watching the
"OXS" lamp on my dash light up for the first time, telling
me that it's time to drop another pile of money off at the
ol' VW shop. But 90000 miles came, and went, and nothing
happened - no light, no bells, no dirge playing from the
stereo speakers to wish my little O2 sensor well on its
journey to the Great Parts Bin in the Sky.
At first, I thought perhaps I was the fortunate owner of
one of the rare "Eternal O2 sensors" that have been supressed
by a secret cartel of O2 sensor manufacturers and the same
people who are supressing all those 200-MPG carburators.
Unfortunately, I soon realized that the OXS light didn't light
during the "lamp test" when the key is turned on. Presumably,
I just have a dead light, so I'll go ahead and replace the
oxygen sensor. However, I'm curious about what might have
caused the lamp's demise even before it got to perform the
one small service it had waited its whole life for. LED's are
usually pretty reliable.
I looked at the "oxygen sensor odometer box" just above the
spare tire, and noticed it had a 4-wire connector on it -
green, black, blue, and brown. Connected to it is a
three-wire cable. The cable has blue and brown wires, which
are connected to the connector. It also has a green wire, which
is NOT connected - it appears to have been cut, but is not long
enough to reach the green wire on the connector (so either it never
did, or someone made 2 cuts and removed a few inches of wire in
between). The green and black wires on the connector appear to
have been cut.
So, I have two questions:
(1) Is this the "normal" set up for the oxygen sensor odometer wiring?
Or did some previous owner modify it for some reason I can't imagine,
and thus perhaps disabled the OXS light? ["By golly, no one's telling
ME when to replace my oxygen sensor!", I picture them saying as they
crawl underneath the van with the wire cutters.]
(2) Is there any more to replacing the oxygen sensor than just
removing the old one and putting on the new one? If that's all
there is to it, it looks pretty easy. Do I need to do any sort
of adjustments, emissions tests using expensive tools, etc.?
Any reason I shouldn't buy one of the cheap universal Bosch
oxygen sensors that the Bus Depot sells?
It's worth noting that the van's manual calls for replacing the
O2 sensor only at 90000 miles - not at 30000 or 60000 - so
I've got no reason to think the O2 sensor was ever replaced
before. (But who knows.) I'm at 92000 now.
OK, I guess that's more than two questions. Thanks for the help.
-Steven Sittser
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