thought this was interesting...
a little background: i have an autometer narrow band AF gauge installed in my car. i got it for free, so i figured why not. i have the power wires going to the cigarette lighter, so it comes on when the car is turned on. and i have the signal wire going out to the engine bay, tapped off the harness just befor the sensor connector.
i also have an oil catch can to collect bypass from the pcv system.
well, on my ride to work this morning, i noticed the gauge was no longer hitting the lean side when i would let off the throttle and compression brake the engine. it would also swing between mid-stoich and pig-rich under cruise. two situations that i knew were different from normal operation. seeing this made me think that maybe my o2 sensor was going bad, and the signal wasnt clean anymore. well, i didnt have a CEL, so i thought maybe my connection was bad where i tapped off the sensor wire. two plausible situations, i thought.
so, i get to work, pull into the parking lot, and suddenly, its working fine again. nice. oh well, maybe i'll look into it when i get back home.
now, its lunch time. need food. uh oh, also need gas. i decide that when i pull inot the gas station, i'll check my oil level, and see if wiggling the wire tap gets me a better signal. pop the hood... oh CRAP! turns out, it had nothing to do with my wire tap - well, maybe not NOTHING. turns out, my catch can, which i had mounted just above the sensor wire tap, had broke from its mount and was sitting on the wire tap conenction. i thought 'that can't be good!' so i moved it out of the way, jumped back intot he car, started it up, and the AF gauge was now reading exactly the way you would expect it to.
so i stopped at the hardware store, bought a worm-clamp and tied the catch can back up out of the way. the whole ride back to work, no issues fromt he signal on the AF gauge.
moral of the story: narrow band AF gauges are not 100% useless!!
thanks for reading
a little background: i have an autometer narrow band AF gauge installed in my car. i got it for free, so i figured why not. i have the power wires going to the cigarette lighter, so it comes on when the car is turned on. and i have the signal wire going out to the engine bay, tapped off the harness just befor the sensor connector.
i also have an oil catch can to collect bypass from the pcv system.
well, on my ride to work this morning, i noticed the gauge was no longer hitting the lean side when i would let off the throttle and compression brake the engine. it would also swing between mid-stoich and pig-rich under cruise. two situations that i knew were different from normal operation. seeing this made me think that maybe my o2 sensor was going bad, and the signal wasnt clean anymore. well, i didnt have a CEL, so i thought maybe my connection was bad where i tapped off the sensor wire. two plausible situations, i thought.
so, i get to work, pull into the parking lot, and suddenly, its working fine again. nice. oh well, maybe i'll look into it when i get back home.
now, its lunch time. need food. uh oh, also need gas. i decide that when i pull inot the gas station, i'll check my oil level, and see if wiggling the wire tap gets me a better signal. pop the hood... oh CRAP! turns out, it had nothing to do with my wire tap - well, maybe not NOTHING. turns out, my catch can, which i had mounted just above the sensor wire tap, had broke from its mount and was sitting on the wire tap conenction. i thought 'that can't be good!' so i moved it out of the way, jumped back intot he car, started it up, and the AF gauge was now reading exactly the way you would expect it to.
so i stopped at the hardware store, bought a worm-clamp and tied the catch can back up out of the way. the whole ride back to work, no issues fromt he signal on the AF gauge.
moral of the story: narrow band AF gauges are not 100% useless!!
thanks for reading
