I have followed some of the recent comments on the generic three wire O2 sensor. In my case, when I converted my '82 Diesel Westphalia to a '90 1.8 L 8V GTI Digifant engine, I had the privilege of building the wiring harness by melding the diesel harness with that from the GTI. The original O2 sensor was replaced with a generic from Ford (Mustang, 86, V8) since that was the cheapest available. More recently I purchased a generic from Bus Depot (Bosch number 0 258 003 913, which also has the sub-number 13 913 on the box). I noticed at once that the two units were identical down to the details of the electrical connector. In my installation, I picked up a female connector from a Ford product (I got one from a Thunderbird, but all the V6 and V8 three wire connectors I ran into on FOMOCO products were the same - 84 to 92), got the VW connector end from a crushed sensor (lots of these in the yards) and soldered up an adaptor cable. As Darrell says, use a high temperature version of a shrink wrap tubing for insulation. I also used the high temp silica sheath from the FOMOCO units as a secondary thermal insulation. I contemplated using a braided ground shield, but checked several factory installations and found none, even though the total run length was more than that required for my conversion. Works fine. I checked for pickup noise on the line at the firewall connector with a scope and found nothing. Now I'm prepared for an inexpensive swap-out whenever the sensor goes south. Actually, I have swapped sensors several times for diagnostics when troubleshooting. The Ford connector is easily the quality of the VW original. Frank Grunthaner |
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