Question about Oxygen (O2) sensors...

[i64X]

Before I begin let me say that I have searched, I'm just varifying some stuff I've found...

Alright about a week ago my friend Steve and I put a cat-back on my 97 Civic. We somehow managed to mess up the secondary O2 sensor. When we turned the car on we got a CEL, so we shut the car off, checked the O2 sensor and all of its wires, reset the car's computer, and tried again. The CEL came back. I took the car down to Autozone and had them run the machine on it... sure enough, secondary O2 sensor.

They had the Bosch replacement sensors... the universal one was $59. The Primary OEM type (direct fit) was $69. The Secondary OEM type (direct fit) was $269. The funny thing is... the universal for the primary and the secondary had the same serial number, which makes me think that the actual sensor itself is the same for the primary and secondary. The difference must be in the wiring... but since they're both 4 wire sensors, and both have the same plug, the only difference I could see is that the primary has longer wires than the secondary sensor does.

Long story short, you pay $200 for 4 inches less wire when buying a secondary sensor!

My only thinking on this is that the secondary sensor probably goes out more often than the primary one, or is destroyed by people more often somehow, and therefore costs more money.

Here are my questions:

I read a post that said that the only difference between a primary and secondary is infact the length of the wires. The secondary is the same plug, same thread pattern and everything as the primary, but has shorter wires. Is this true?

Another thread I was reading stated that the primary sensor could be used to replace a secondary sensor, the ONLY thing I'd have to do would be to either shorten the longer wires, or tuck them up into the hole in the floorpan of the vehicle to get them out of the way. Is this true?

Third question -- we can see the hole in the floorpan for the secondary sensor... we had to unplug the secondary sensor to get the cat off (obviously) but we can't figure out where *inside the car* the other end of the plug is. We measured and it looks like it comes up right where the firewall is. Can the ECU-side connector be easily accessed inside the car without removing a whole ton of carpet or the console, etc.? If so, where is it and how do we get to it?

Thanks for all your help guys. This stupid CEL is driving me crazy.

[gunnmen01]

They both function the same , couldnt tell ya why the $ is different...


gunnmen01