Sweet CEL eliminator for 2nd O2 sensor

[stolibears]

I've got a race cat on my car which of course lit the CEL for the O2 sensor. My solution for the past year was simply to take out the bulb in the console, problem is that if anything serious was wrong, I probably won't find out till it was too late. So I went on a quest to find a MIL eliminator/simulator that would work. There is crap out there that range anywhere from $7.95-$60 that make claims that will fix this. They come in 2 flavors, one is called a mechanical eliminator, and an electrical eliminator.

Mechanical:
The basic concept here is that you plug your O2 sensor into this metal bolt looking thing, and then plug it into your test pipe or cat. It restricts the amount of gas reaching the sensor so it doesn't flag the ECU for the extra hydrocarbons that it doesn't see anymore.

Electrical
Which seems to be the more abundant of the 2, simple uses a resister(among other things) that you splice into the OE sensor wire on the O2 sensor and the ground wire, making sure to leave the heater wires alone. If you go this route, I found that on my civic, these are the green and white wires out of the 4 wires connected to the sensor. LEAVE THE BLACK ONES ALONE!

There is another electrical solution that uses a micro computer to simulate the signal, but also costs the most at around $60.

First attempt:
My first attempt was using one of the ebay MIL simulators, which was electrical in flavor and cost me about $13. After wireing it, and re-wireing it several times, my CEL would still come on after about 15 miles. Couldn't get it to work.

Solution
Next I tried a DIY I found that uses a mechanical eliminator from clubrsx.com. It cost me less then $7 and only had to do some carefull drilling.

http://forums.clubrsx.com/showthread.php?t=296791&highlight=simulator

I've got about 30 miles on my car after the install and so far so good. Just thought I would share.

 

[stolibears]

some updates

ok, there wasn't enough clearance with the 2 foulers, so I can only use the one that is hollowed out.
when I tried to use the 2, it butt up against the frame of the car and ended up shorting out a fuse cause I stripped a wire.

Third attempt:
I remembered reading or hearing something that sounded too good to be true and chalked it up to tuner urban mith....TIN FOIL. Some one wrapped the sensor in tin foil and put it back in the bung. So I put this mith to test by wrapping the tip of the sensor in tin foil, putting the hollowed out fouler on it, and screwing the whole thing back in the bung.

I'm at 76 miles, and no engine light.

 

[LatinEM2]

So wrap tin foil into the tip of the O2 sensor? and plug back in?? hey what race cat do you have??

 

[stolibears]

Powercore race cat. I'm still kind of doubtful about just wrapping it and plugging it back in the cat cause the tin foil is so thin. I would think it would shred off. Using the hollowed out fouler protects the foil.

 

[vandynamics]

tin foil trick has worked for me for ages.

ive never had a problem with it.

youll be suprised to find out that most early obd2 civic ecu's will actually NOT throw a cel for the lack of a secondary o2 sensor.

 

[stolibears]

I never thought about just unplugging it to see what happens.

 

[Matt.]

so, how does this tin foil method work? Do you poke a hole in the foil or something? Or just wrap it and the gases sort of do their thing?

 

[stolibears]

i just wrapped that sucker up, so no gases. I guess it only sends a signal when it sees too much.

 

[stolibears]

just to update: 1100 miles and no CEL...

 

[WiggerMan]

btw the o2 sensor doesnt see hc's it only sees o2 which is why its called a o2 sensor not a hc sensor. and if you really had to bypass it you could get a code eliminator that simply produces a voltage of around .5 volts

 

[Slept-n]

you wanna come over to my house and do that for my boosted si? lemme know i'm in Richmond/ Chesterfield co.

 

[stolibears]

btw the o2 sensor doesnt see hc's it only sees o2 which is why its called a o2 sensor not a hc sensor. and if you really had to bypass it you could get a code eliminator that simply produces a voltage of around .5 volts

the tin foil was cheaper

 

[stolibears]

you wanna come over to my house and do that for my boosted si? lemme know i'm in Richmond/ Chesterfield co.

how bout we just trade cars? seems fair to me. lol


really though, it's not that hard to do. just hollow out that spark plug fouler with a 1/2 inch bit, go under the car, unscrew the 02 sensor out of the Cat. cover it with tin foil, screw that into the drilled out fouler, and screw the fouler back into the cat. just be careful of the wires.

 

[LatinEM2]

I just got my Randon Technology high flow cat today..so my bro and I get started on it..but the screw..(inlet) aren't long enough...ARGGHH!...lol...also had a hard time taking of the O2 sesor..untilli read on the helm's manual that you have to pull the plug/grommett...argggh again..haha..

 

[henkz0r]

everyone i know with obd2 just leave their secondary o2 sensor hanging in the engine bay and put a plug in the cat. it's going to read ambient atmosphere which is inherently cleaner than your exhaust so you'll never throw a code.

 

[oc_civic]

everyone i know with obd2 just leave their secondary o2 sensor hanging in the engine bay and put a plug in the cat. it's going to read ambient atmosphere which is inherently cleaner than your exhaust so you'll never throw a code.

you should get an O2 cel due to it not being hot enough...

 

[Slept-n]

how bout we just trade cars? seems fair to me. lol


really though, it's not that hard to do. just hollow out that spark plug fouler with a 1/2 inch bit, go under the car, unscrew the 02 sensor out of the Cat. cover it with tin foil, screw that into the drilled out fouler, and screw the fouler back into the cat. just be careful of the wires.

cani have your lip. . .please. . . ?

 

[Slept-n]

how bout we just trade cars? seems fair to me. lol


really though, it's not that hard to do. just hollow out that spark plug fouler with a 1/2 inch bit, go under the car, unscrew the 02 sensor out of the Cat. cover it with tin foil, screw that into the drilled out fouler, and screw the fouler back into the cat. just be careful of the wires.

cani have your lip. . .please. . . ?

also does anyone know if this will be benificial to turbo cars? example. . .gas milage/ running/ tuning. . ?

 

[henkz0r]

you should get an O2 cel due to it not being hot enough...

Well, I don't do this since I'm OBD1. But they don't throw any codes. who knows. maybe where they hang the O2 sensor it gets warm enough to not throw a warmup code. i couldn't imagine a place outside the exhaust that gets to 400F tho.