B_WALLACH

I finally got around to replacing the Oxy sensor today and maybe it's because the old one was in there for 234,000mi that the car acted weird after I put a new one in. I don't know if this is common but here is what happened. I hooked it up with the new one and the car refused to start. I unhooked the connections and tried again and it started ok. While it was running I reconnected the 2 connectors to see if it would kill the engine, it didn't and it started just fine afterwards with it hooked back up. Is this normal? The car seems to ping a bit now also, it didn't do it with the old sensor in. Any thoughts?

mt6127

I hope I don't have the same issue. Sounds like your car was retuned to run rich to compensate for a worn out sensor. Now the new one has leaned out the mix causing the pinging. I'd check the timing and look for vacuum leaks around the boot, maybe clean out the fuel distributor and throttle body, throw in some injector cleaner and then see. Next I'd make sure the car is getting good spark by doing plugs, wires, rotor, cap, fuel filter if they haven't been done in a while. Last I would consider tweaking the mixture (I don't like the idea of playing with the CIS unless I know the rest of the car is in good tune - kind of a personal two wrongs don't work theory). My car also has 234,000 mi - and I don't ever recall doing the o2 either... Let me know what you figure out!

B_WALLACH

Thanks for the input. I've pretty much replaced everything as far as tuneups go and when I replaced the air filter I cleaned the fuel dist. as it was exposed. I did advance the timing just for fun. I put some qustionable gas in it and it's been running hot ever sence if that is possible and right before the oxy change I put a half tank of shell super in it to see if it would cool off a bit. Maybe when it works it's way into the engine the pinging will stop but I'm going to back the timing off anyway. Can't afford to run that expensive gas all the time (if even the low oct. is cheap these days). I've looked at the manual about messing with the mixture but would rather have the proper tools to do it with and might take it in to have that done, I would make it worse probably and don't want to take that chance. If you have the same not starting problem with yours post it please. I'd like to know if that is normal or common.

audiqv8

Backing off the timing should help with the pining.

B_WALLACH

I found out the problem and I'm feeling pretty dumb, when I was messing around in that part of the car I dislodged the distrib. vac. line. It looked like it was on but at a close look it was sitting on top of the fitting. After fixing it the pinging went away.