Wideband?

[poie]

Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is a wideband and what is it used for? I have seen this term several times and it is one of the many things I would like to learn about.

Cheers

 

[Captain KRM P5]

a wideband is a five volt oxygen sensor used to get a more precise air/fuel ratio over a stock narrowband sensor. most factory o2 sensors are single volt sensors that, when combined with your average air/fuel gauge, provide little more than a light show.

 

[poie]

Does it replace the stock narrowband or is it used in conjunction with the stock setup?

 

[Kansei]

It can replace one of the stock narrowband sensors, but most people just use it in conjunction (at least I did). Most have a 1v output so that you can hook that up to the stock wiring and the car shouldn't know the difference.

 

[poie]

So it is the same sensor just two different outputs, one 5v and a 1v? What would be the purpose of simultaneously outputting two signals at once? One goes to the stock ECU but then what is the purpose of the 5v signal, where is it going to?

Sorry if I'm being a PITA but I find engine managment a fascinating subject albeit confusing as hell sometimes...

cheers

 

[LordWorm]

If you had a standard ecu, the use of a wideband O2 sensor would be somewhat dubious at best... it could tell you something's going wrong, but wont give you any means to fix it!

Basically, with a standard ecu, you'd leave your normal O2 sensors hooked upto the ECU so it can do its thing, and hook up the wideband to a gauge. This gauge would tell you if you are too rich or too lean essentially.

Where wideband comes into its own is with aftermarket ECU/piggy back tuning - because you can take the information the gauge gives you and apply it to your tune (too lean, add more fuel, too rich, take some out etc).

It is a totally different sensor...
the narrow band sensors are basically give you 3 signals, "lean" "stoich" and "rich"... wont tell you how lean, or how rich.

with the wideband sensor, it outputs a signal between 0 and 5 volts, and i think to a precision of 2 decimal places (one of the bigger ECU guru's will likely correct me on this....)....

 

[Kansei]

So it is the same sensor just two different outputs, one 5v and a 1v? What would be the purpose of simultaneously outputting two signals at once? One goes to the stock ECU but then what is the purpose of the 5v signal, where is it going to?

Sorry if I'm being a PITA but I find engine managment a fascinating subject albeit confusing as hell sometimes...

cheers

The 5v gets translated and output to your gauge. As lordworm said, the 0-5v range gives you much, much greater accuracy.

I still think with a stock ECU it's useful if you are boosted so you can look down and say "damn, I'm not getting enough fuel at that rpm and that boost level.. I should probably buy a decent ECU"

 

[poie]

I like how one upgrade always leads to another upgrade and so on....gotta love gadgets.

Thanks for the responses and the information. Now who wants to discuss boost controllers???

 

[LordWorm]

I still think with a stock ECU it's useful if you are boosted so you can look down and say "damn, I'm not getting enough fuel at that rpm and that boost level.. I should probably buy a decent ECU"

yeh thats it...useful in telling you how inadequate your ecu is