Two thumbs up for the O2 sensor anti-fouler trick!!

[charm]

Two days after installing the anti-foulers under the rear O2 sensor of 2000 OBW with 165k miles on it, I still don't have a CEL! I've owned the car for almost 2 years and this is the second longest period of time I've had no CEL (the longest one was right after my second catalytic converter replacement and that lasted about 2 weeks).

 

Car's running smoothly just as it always has. Gas mileage appears to be what it was before. So far it seems that nothing has changed except for the yellow light on my dash isn't on.

 

The only bad thing is that the upper right hand corner of the my gauge cluster looks empty without the CEL on. I'll just have to learn to live without it.

 

Glad to have found this trick. Personally, I think I did the right thing trying to fix it correctly before going this route, but after dropping around $2k on catalytic converters, O2 sensors, and various visits to the mechanic, it was time to just be done with it.

[Fairtax4me]

Welcome to the wonderful world of modification.

 

Sometimes no matter how hard you try, you just can't make it right without a little Redneck Rigging.

[Durania]

I can't wait to do this fix as well. Did you use two of the anti-foulers or just one?

[charm]

Tried it with one first, mostly because I didn't have a 22mm wrench and my O2 sensor socket thingy wasn't gonna work without hacking the heat shield if I used two. One did not do the trick. So, a couple cuts with the tin snips to open up the holes for the wire to rear O2 sensor and the O2 removal tool slipped right on.

 

I did gob a good bit of high temp thread sealant on all of the threads to make certain I didn't have any air leaks.

 

It's still off. I'll post something if the code comes back. The car should pass emissions just fine if things stay as they are and the testing place doesn't look under the car at the rear O2 sensor.

['84 Flat-Four]

I can't wait to do this fix as well. Did you use two of the anti-foulers or just one?

 

+1

 

Good luck with the inspection!

 

Just a thought, but try to cover up the shiny-ness of the non-foulers. Used oil, mud, etc.

Inspectors are like crows,... attracted to anything shiny

[lostinthe202]

Not heard of this "anti-fowler" what is it?

[CNY_Dave]

Not heard of this "anti-fowler" what is it?

 

Great thread on the trick:

http://forums.evolutionm.net/evo-how-requests-questions-tips/215795-5-o2-cheater-non-fouler-how.html

 

An anti-fouler is used on a car that burns a lot of oil- it spaces the sparkplug back out of the cylinder so oil does not clog the spark plug.

 

 

Dave

[charm]

No worries on the emissions test. WA state does them every other year and mine was last done this past August. By August of 2011 they should be masked pretty well.

 

I strongly recommend trying to resolve this issue the right way first. While I am excited that it turned off the CEL for me, I am glad, albeit poorer, that I attempted to diagnose and replace parts that weren't working correctly. I am all for modding cars but this is a last resort kind of modification in my opinion.

[ScottG]

Evidently the CEL for converter inefficiency exists in other Japanese made vehichles. My friend had both 02 sensors and the catalytic converter replaced in his 2003 Toyota Camry about a year ago & his CEL recently came back on with a code for converter inefficiency.

 

I used a single antifouler on the secondary 02 sensor and used my scanner to turn off the CEL. In the past 3 weeks the CEL has not come back on.

 

This fix works!!

 

ScottG

[EVOthis]

Good Thread..