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Mil elminator with a/f gauge?

T

tbarney

New CEG'er
Joined
Jun 15, 2004
Messages
14
Location
Wisconsin
I found a few threads in the archives that addressed my issue, but nothing that specifically answerd my question.

I am starting to get p0420 and p0430 codes on my 99 contour. 100,000 miles now. One of the gauges I have is an air/fuel gauge. Not that I race at all, just looked cool moving back and forth. Ok... to my point... if I hookup mil eliminators to get rid of the 420 and 430 codes, what is that going to do with my a/f gauge?

I assume it'll just sit on on one side and never move? Is that correct? Is there any workaround to keeping it at least partially functional?

thanks,
Tom
 
Your A/F will work fine.. It is a standalone reading.. it doesn't go through the PCM, etc.

You would be running a seperate circuit (even if you were using the wideband (narrowband? blech) sensor in the stock spot.

It would be spliced in and ran to your gauge before the MIL eliminator, wouldn't it? The gauge would read whatever the O2 sensor reads and display it REGARDLESS if its "too rich" or "too lean". The gauges input is from before (or should be) the mil circuit.
 
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doesn't the A/F gage wire into the O2 sensor ... and the pre-cat codes are set by what the cat monitoring sensors read ... so the two would be completely seperate ...
 
BrApple said:
doesn't the A/F gage wire into the O2 sensor ... and the pre-cat codes are set by what the cat monitoring sensors read ... so the two would be completely seperate ...
Click to expand...

Not to mention that!
 
posthuman63t said:
Where in WI are you?
Click to expand...

I'm in Germantown, near Milwaukee.

I am tapped into the o2 sensor on the upper passenger side of the engine compartment (by the sturt tower is a white wire with a red tracer line, that is what I am tapped into for the o2 sensor) so it is well after where the mil eliminator would go. I'm guessing I would have to resplice into the wire before the mil eliminator which wouldn't be too hard to do while I am down there installing it.

-Tom
 
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You don't have to change anything for the A/F meter. It is connected to the upstream sensor while the MIL eliminators are connected to the downstream sensor(s) harness.

There is no need to do anything special in your case, there is no interaction.

Steve
 
projectSHO89 said:
You don't have to change anything for the A/F meter. It is connected to the upstream sensor while the MIL eliminators are connected to the downstream sensor(s) harness.

There is no need to do anything special in your case, there is no interaction.

Steve
Click to expand...


Excellent news! Thanks
 
it sounds like you have a AFR guage taking a reading from a standard O2 sensor? that's why it's pinging back and forth?

i've searched but can't find the answer to my question: can you use a wideband O2 sensor in place of the stock O2 sensor so that the AFR guage gets a useful reading AND the computer receives it's proper reading? or does the ECU only get the signal it needs from the regular type of O2 sensor?
 
cjmahone66 said:
it sounds like you have a AFR guage taking a reading from a standard O2 sensor? that's why it's pinging back and forth?

i've searched but can't find the answer to my question: can you use a wideband O2 sensor in place of the stock O2 sensor so that the AFR guage gets a useful reading AND the computer receives it's proper reading? or does the ECU only get the signal it needs from the regular type of O2 sensor?
Click to expand...



Assuming your talking about splicing the output signal wire from the wideband sensor and feeding it to the ECM like I think you are saying, then correct short answer is no.

Wideband O2 sensors use a voltage range from 0-5V to output their signal, which is why they are more accurate. The standard (cheapo narrowband) sensors that the ECM uses have a voltage range of 0-1V to output their signal. Therefore the ECM is only looking for a signal of 0-1V on the input pins from the OEM O2 sensors. If you were to put a wideband sensor in the place of the narrowband sensor... first off you could fry the ECM at that pin as it may only be rated for something along the lines of 1±0.5V. Second if you didn't fry the ECM at that pin the ECM wouldn't know what to do with the voltage it was receiving over 1V. So more then 4/5 of the time the ECM would think you had way to rich a mixture in your exhaust (0.2V is lean, 0.8V is rich) or it would assume there was something wrong with the sensor and default to a limp home mode AFR and put up a CEL.

However all that said if your wideband controller has a means of outputing a signal that you can program then you could possibly do that if you set the controller up to output a narrowband 0-1V signal to the ECM via it's I/O. I believe my Innovate Motorsports LC-1 wideband controller has this functionality.
 
Yes the LC-1 has scalable outputs. however I believe most place the wideban sensor before the cat and after the y-pipe, this way you can get a reading off both banks. that is unless you want to buy to setups and replace both upstream O2 sensor.
 
thanks for the input. sounds like that route has not been done before for a good reason. i think it would be less trouble to weld in a bung for the wideband O2 after the y-pipe.
i'll go that route.
 
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