Wideband O2 Sensor

[Marxus]

Hey guys!

I am looking for a wideband o2 sensor, found out a lot of you are using the PLX SM-AFR, but according to the website it had been discontinued.
I don't want one that I need to calibrate once in a while like I read about the Innovate ones. I am more of the fire and forget guy, even if it takes just 15 seconds. I know myself and I would never do it

Will be hooked up to my UTCOMP. Therefore an explicit gauge will not be needed. Is there something else you could recommend?

KR

[Confused]

Yep, avoid Innovate like the plague.

Depending on what your long term plans are, whether you think you might do enough mods to the car to justify installing an aftermarket ECU, consider a controller that has CANBUS output, as this will future proof it.

If you don't think this is on your radar, then you can skip this as a requirement.

You will need something with a separate emulated Narrowband output, as this will need to feed the stock ECU.

I'd take a look at the LD Performance (but the 4.9, not ADV), and 14point7 Spartan controllers as sensible budget items.

AEM X-Series are kind of OK, but definitely not anything AEM that's not the X-Series

[Marxus]

That spartan looks very promising, will look into that one! The LD one seems to only be able to switch between 0-5V and 0-1V, but not simultaneously. I am not planning to go that far that a aftermarket ECU will be needed. Thank you, helped me a lot!

[miller]

Yep, avoid Innovate like the plague.

Whilst Innovate has been mentioned.....a Query! Ive had Innovate in the Evo for years. Jase fitted it, must be 10yrs plus. I replaced the actual sensor only recently but that has failed very quickly. Do you know off hand any part numbers of a compatible but better sensor that suits? an NTK sensor has been mentioned but im not up to speed on them.

[Confused]

Have either of them failed with an E-8 error?

How much did you pay for the new sensor - genuine will be around £100, knock-off will be less than that, and are much more susceptible to premature failure, especially with an Innovate controller.


If so, don't throw the sensor itself away, any competent controller will still be able to use the sensor.

Unfortunately NTK sensors require a different controller, though yes they can be a bit more robust, they also, I think, respond a bit slower overall?


Have you've suddenly started leaving the ignition on before starting the engine, for example?

[miller]

It goes into an E8 Error after an undetermined amount of time. Sometimes it can be 2minutes in, othertimes 10mins in. The replacement sensor was genuine and cost me around $140 dollars. I bought a new innovative boost gauge at the same time from a defined retailer.

[Confused]

Yeah, the sensors are almost definitely completely fine still - this is one of the problems with the Innovate controllers - they are still using the same control code that they reverse-engineered in the early 90s, designed for the earlier 4.2 sensor, whereas everyone else is now using Bosch's CJ125 chip for control, which is designed by Bosch specifically for this task, and also fully compatible with the 4.9!

The Innovate gets itself into a state with sensors where something goes marginally out of spec (which is directly caused BY the controller's actions itself) then the controller craps itself, and throws an E8 error.

You stick those sensors onto any other controller, and you'll still get years of life out of them (unless you physically damage them, most often is by "thermal shock", where you sit in the car with the ignition on for a while before starting the engine - the sensor is nice and warm at 780 degrees C, and you send a wave of 10-30 degree air across it, and it just shatters the ceramic internals of the sensor)