Honda Car Forum

just for giggles, i've done some experiments with some different oxygen
sensors i've picked up at junk yards on my 89 civic. the results
surprised me:

aftermarket oxygen sensors will get you through smog no problems, but it
seems they have a very poor response time compared to oem. this means
hesitation on rapid acceleration, poor gas mileage, and general
drivability issues. the most remarkable effect to me was very harsh
shifting on my automatic.

using oem, car drives great. try another aftermarket sensor, car
definitely works, but persistent symptoms as above. go back to another
eom sensor, car drives perfect again.

moral of the story: even though they're 3 or more times the price of
after-market sensors, if you're serious about keeping your honda on the
road and being happy with it, /only/ use honda oem oxygen sensors.

Good one. About how many aftermarket sensors did you check?

"jim beam" <nospam@example.net> wrote
> just for giggles, i've done some experiments with some different oxygen
> sensors i've picked up at junk yards on my 89 civic. the results
> surprised me:
>
> aftermarket oxygen sensors will get you through smog no problems, but it
> seems they have a very poor response time compared to oem. this means
> hesitation on rapid acceleration, poor gas mileage, and general
> drivability issues. the most remarkable effect to me was very harsh
> shifting on my automatic.
>
> using oem, car drives great. try another aftermarket sensor, car
> definitely works, but persistent symptoms as above. go back to another
> eom sensor, car drives perfect again.
>
> moral of the story: even though they're 3 or more times the price of
> after-market sensors, if you're serious about keeping your honda on the
> road and being happy with it, /only/ use honda oem oxygen sensors.
>

Elle wrote:
> "jim beam" <nospam@example.net> wrote
>
>>just for giggles, i've done some experiments with some different oxygen
>>sensors i've picked up at junk yards on my 89 civic. the results
>>surprised me:
>>
>>aftermarket oxygen sensors will get you through smog no problems, but it
>>seems they have a very poor response time compared to oem. this means
>>hesitation on rapid acceleration, poor gas mileage, and general
>>drivability issues. the most remarkable effect to me was very harsh
>>shifting on my automatic.
>>
>>using oem, car drives great. try another aftermarket sensor, car
>>definitely works, but persistent symptoms as above. go back to another
>>eom sensor, car drives perfect again.
>>
>>moral of the story: even though they're 3 or more times the price of
>>after-market sensors, if you're serious about keeping your honda on the
>>road and being happy with it, /only/ use honda oem oxygen sensors.
>>
> Good one. About how many aftermarket sensors did you check?
>
two. both were used, but good enough for experiments i thought. bosch
& some other generic thing whose name escapes me.