"Michael Pardee" <michaeltnull@cybertrails.com> wrote
> "Elle" <honda.lioness@earthlink.net> wrote
> > "Michael Pardee" <michaeltnull@cybertrails.com> wrote
> > It is easy to assume the "check engine"
> > light will tell us if
> >> the O2 sensor is bad, but they apparently can get
pretty
> > "soft" before the
> >> ECU complains.
> >
> > Yes, so a number of consumer and other car sites report.
> > Last year it was enough to persuade me to replace my
150k,
> > 13-year-old O2 sensor pre-emptively. (That it was only
about
> > $45 for an OEM one helped, too.)
> >
> >
> Wow! Was that for a Honda?

Yes, my 1991 Honda Civic LX, 1.5 Liter. Bought it at
www.automedicsupply.com . Its prices go up quite steadily
for more recent years, though (and conversely, somewhat down
for older years). This site's prices appear to be a lot
less than Majestic's and slhonda's OEM sensor prices.

While I realize one can still drive a car with a bad O2
sensor, the car will run poorly. I didn't want to be
stranded somewhere in that situation. Not when the fix was
$45 for a part that would probably last the rest of the
car's life. I kept the old one to pop in and milk out a few
more thousand miles etc. as needed.