Prelude Kelly

oxygen sensor

There are three ways of doing something: the wrong way, the right way, and the Stan way.

My car's oxygen sensor started malfunctioning, so I faced a dilemma: take the car to the dealership and pay a $100+ markup on the price of parts plus $100+ for labor, or try to do replace it myself. Actually, it wasn't really a dilemma - of course I was gonna try to do the work myself.

After a few tries at unscrewing the old sensor and in the process completely screwing it up, we were back in the dilemma. The sensor was rusted on solid and would not budge. Does Stan accept defeat and take the car to the dealership now?

Heck no. A Stan way had to be found, and it was. First, we drill a hole in the exhaust pipe:

Then, we cold-weld a nut of the appropriate size over the hole, and screw the oxygen sensor in. Done*.

* Of course, I'm skipping past a few hours of excruciating pain in freezing temperatures, but hey, nobody said that the Stan way is the easy way.

posted by Stan D. @ Tuesday, March 10, 2009