O2 sensor or not?

Hi,
I just bought a 94 G20 about a week ago and have been noticing some strange problems. It seems to get really poor gas mileage while cold, the idle is rough while cold and it has died once, and the idle seems to go between 500 and about 800 rpms. These problems all stop when the car warms up, and have been worse in cold weather than when warm. The car uses NO oil, isn't leaking any gas that I can tell, and the plugs are new bosch platinum plus 4 that I put in yesterday. Is it the O2 sensor, or does the idle need to be adjusted. Please help me, cuz I like this car. I don't want it to be problematic for me...

Thanks,

Jeremy:flash:

Originally posted by jbmays
Hi,
I just bought a 94 G20 about a week ago and have been noticing some strange problems. It seems to get really poor gas mileage while cold, the idle is rough while cold and it has died once, and the idle seems to go between 500 and about 800 rpms. These problems all stop when the car warms up, and have been worse in cold weather than when warm. The car uses NO oil, isn't leaking any gas that I can tell, and the plugs are new bosch platinum plus 4 that I put in yesterday. Is it the O2 sensor, or does the idle need to be adjusted. Please help me, cuz I like this car. I don't want it to be problematic for me...


It's possible your O2 sensor is kaput. What kind of mpg are you getting?

The rough idle could be a result of the Bosch plugs (even though they are new). A lot of folks have had problems with Bosch plugs specifically, and non-NGK plugs in general.

Without a doubt the only really good plug for the SR20 is the NGK. People have replaced Bosch and other plugs with as little as 2,000 miles on them with NGKs with as much as 100,000 miles on them and idle and driveability problems have gone away. I'm not kidding. And this has happened more than once.

If you want to curl up with a nice beer (or whatever) and want to do some reading on this, try searching the SE-R Mailing List archives for Bosch Plats (and other variations).

Your plugs might not be bad, so if you have some NGKs around (even old ones) put them in and see how it runs.

Well, you may be right about the plugs. I was told by the parts monkey at advance that they didn't make regular NGK for this car. He wanted to sell me the NGK platinum ones for ten bucks a piece, which I would have taken, but he had to order them.

It was doing this before I changed the plugs, sooooo.. I assumed that would fix the problem, and it's no better, no worse. I have had good luck with NGK in all other japanese cars I've owned, but I listened to the parts monkey, so that's what I get...

Jeremy

Is there a check engine light showing?? just trying to eliminate the sensor thing..

Nope, no check engine light, and it's only when cold that it acts up.

Thanks,

Jeremy

Originally posted by jbmays
Well, you may be right about the plugs. I was told by the parts monkey at advance that they didn't make regular NGK for this car. He wanted to sell me the NGK platinum ones for ten bucks a piece, which I would have taken, but he had to order them.

This goes back to a discussion George and I had regarding non-Platinums from NGK. Go buy yourself a set of BKR6E's. Make sure they are not the BKR6E-11's. Those are for the GA16. They range between $5-$8 for a set of four and are the V-Power Copper plugs by NGK. That is about $1.50 a plug compared to $7-$10 a plug.

Funny thing George and I found out is they do not list these for the G20, but they do list them for the SE-R's. So, with that said, I am running them right now and they are great. Last for 30,000 instead of 60,000 miles, but well worth the savings. Let's see:

2 sets of BKR6E's = $16.00 = 60,000 miles

1 set of PFR6B-11's = $38.00 = 60,000 miles

I picked mine up at NAPA. They have a main warehouse out here for central OHIO so I just went there to get them. Advance Autoparts had to order them, so I paid about $0.80 more and got them at NAPA immediately from there stock.

does anyone know where i can get a 02 sensor for a good price?
i called a local auto parts store and they said $62.00.
is that to much or sound like a good price?

i read an article that said if your car is running rich just clean the 02 sensor.
would that really work???

I think I have it!

Your experience sounds awfully familiar. I think it may be a clogged EGR tube. It's a very common problem.

For this and other tune-up issues, go here:

http://www.se-r.net/engine/troubleshooting_guide/index.html