Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

[airdvr1227]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

Glad you changed the thread title because I was going to recommend a Sony Bravia this morning

 

[lncoop]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

Glad you changed the thread title because I was going to recommend a Sony Bravia this morning

LOL. The one thing the Coops don't need is another TV! They're coming out of our ears. Bruce, I just now saw your question about the snake oil. No, I don't subject my truck to any such nonsense, only the outboards if they'll be asleep for more than a couple weeks. The CEL came on a month ago. It continued to run fine so I just disconnected the negative terminal to clear the code and the light stayed off until last Monday. I went ahead and cleared it again last night and it's still off. I'm sure it will come on again at some point, but I'm not in a huge hurry to address it since I'm not currently experiencing decreased performance. I've read that sometimes cats can get stopped up if you take your truck off road quite a bit. I don't go mudding, but I ain't skeert to use the 4wd either. Not saying for sure it's the cat, but it's definitely in the back of my mind. Yesterday I was curious to see what Junior Sample would do with that Expy so I pulled it up on his website. He now has it priced at $11.9k. What a schmuck.

 

[windsors03cobra]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

I do know that GM sold a lot of cars with cats that failed but the problem was limited to cars as far as a I know.
As big as the truck cats are and as long lasting as Chevy trucks are I got to believe truck cat failures are pretty minimal, the 90's were great for them and those cats died with the trucks around 2 or 3 hundred thousand miles.
If it is fact a 02 sensor failure you will easily see the lazy 02 sensor with just a bit of live data from the pcm and melting cats down mudding is fake so thats not a worry for ya.
02 sensor failures common on all cars as they age, trucks runs fine but your probably giving up 2 mpg, 1 anyway not going into closed loop.

I need a TV, I think I'm going to get a 27" Sony Wega with factory stand for $50, gregslist...........

 

[Subliminal]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

Do you have 1, 2 or 4 Oxygen Sensors? You didn't mention the year, so I don't know if it's ODBI or II. If it's 1 sensor, I'd just replace it for piece of mind. Get your new one, cut the wire pig-tail off the old one, get a good closed end wrench on there and turn it off. Shouldn't take long.

If you have more than 1, well, then you might want to start looking a little deeper. Do you have 1 cat or 2? Not sure if you have dual exhaust or not. Cats are easy to change, and not too terrible expensive (although with the platinum content, they're more expensive than they used to be.

Fix that shiz and keep on driving it! ;-)

 

[NYBo]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

Yes sir. P0420.

Do you have 1, 2 or 4 Oxygen Sensors? You didn't mention the year, so I don't know if it's ODBI or II.

That's an OBD II code.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

You guys got me thinking. Maybe I should just go ahead and swap out the 02 sensors myself. I guess the thing to do would be to go ahead and replace both the downstream sensors? Is it just an unbolt/rebolt and plug and play kind of operation? I could probably handle that.

 

[Subliminal]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

Yep!

Go to rockauto.com or gmpartsdirect.com and order whichever ones you think you need. If I remember correctly the ones behind the cats are the real working ones, the ones in the front might as well be dumbies...i think they just tell if your cat is working (might have that backwards though).

No real need for one of those special sockets, just cut the wires off flush with the end of the sensor and get a good socket on there, and maybe a cheater pipe and maybe some penetrating oil, rip it off, put some neverseize on the new one(s) and pop em in and plug in the wire.

Easy as puddlin' pie!

 

[642mx]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

Yep!

Go to rockauto.com or gmpartsdirect.com and order whichever ones you think you need. If I remember correctly the ones behind the cats are the real working ones, the ones in the front might as well be dumbies...i think they just tell if your cat is working (might have that backwards though).

No real need for one of those special sockets, just cut the wires off flush with the end of the sensor and get a good socket on there, and maybe a cheater pipe and maybe some penetrating oil, rip it off, put some neverseize on the new one(s) and pop em in and plug in the wire.

Easy as puddlin' pie!

Both 02's report to the computer. The computer needs to see change across the converter to keep the CEL off.

 

[642mx]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

You guys got me thinking. Maybe I should just go ahead and swap out the 02 sensors myself. I guess the thing to do would be to go ahead and replace both the downstream sensors? Is it just an unbolt/rebolt and plug and play kind of operation? I could probably handle that.

02 sensors are an easy swap. I would buy them locally at a place like Autozone where they will loan you the correct socket to replace them. 02 sensors are nothing much more than a galvanic battery, but getting to them is a trick sometimes.

 

[Subliminal]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

Both 02's report to the computer. The computer needs to see change across the converter to keep the CEL off.

Right, but that's it. They don't both adjust the mixture based on the exhaust gases..one is just there to trigger a light and one actually makes the car run correctly.

 

[642mx]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

Right, but that's it. They don't both adjust the mixture based on the exhaust gases..one is just there to trigger a light and one actually makes the car run correctly.

Well... sort of, the computer reads the 02's and then the computer makes the adjustment. If the computer cannot see change, it trips the cel. The 02's are not capable of changing anything.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

I think I'm just going to take it to the dealer for diagnostics. For eighty bucks (yeah, I know) they'll hook it up to a flux capacitor that measures the exhaust and other goodies, so they'll be able to tell me for sure what needs to be done. If it needed a cat would it be running right?

 

[642mx]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

If it needed a cat would it be running right?

Typically not. Most of them break up inside and restrict exhaust flow.

 

[98Shabah]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

The O2 sensors before the cats actually assist the computer in deciding the proper air/fuel ratio to maintain after the computer has gone into "closed loop" mode. The downstream O2 sensors (after the cats) are just there to tell if the cat convertors are functioning or not and have no affect on engine performance or fuel economy.

If it had a partially blocked cat the fuel economy would be worse and it'd be down on power.. Convertors usually only fail if the engine is WAY out of tune and poorly maintained to the point that it is running extremely rich.. I've seen convertors last 200,000 miles in well maintained vehicles.

 

[gnathv]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle

My son's 4.3 chevy was giving codes indicating O2 sensors. Changed Sensors and still had codes, tightened intake manifold and it cleared them. Just a suggestion, hope it helps.

 

[lncoop]

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle UPDATE

Re: Working On a New to Me tow vehicle UPDATE

I received so many helpful responses I thought I'd let everyone know what's going on with the Sierra. The trouble code is the result of a failing cat. I put on my thinking cap and remembered the dealer had replaced the cat at 62k and change, so guess what? New cat for Lukey's truck on the dealer's tab. The next question is, what's causing the cats to fail? Hmmmmmm. Any way, the airbag issue is the front left impact sensor, couple hundred bucks parts and labor. Right now I still plan to swap it early next year, but I'm thinking I'll have an easier time unloading it now that it's not lit up like a Christmas tree.