Hi guys,


I crawled under my Dakota 2000 to change both O2 sensor. I was able to get the one in front with no issue.


The second one, down the line was changed in the past and the connector is a mess (I bought the truck use). Could I simply cut out both connector, connect the wire together and do a clean heat shrink job? Changing the complete harness where the O2 connector connects on seems to be REALLY hard since the wire ends up where I do not have access too.

 

Depends on where you live and if you have emission inspections. There was one member from California that failed because the O2 connectors were not OEM. They considered it "tampering" with the emissions controls. Otherwise, from a performance perspective, the O2 sensor won't care if there is a connector or not, as long as the splice is secure.

 

mmmm interesting. We do not have that kind of inspection up here. Since I do not really care of what goes out of the cat, can we get rid of that sensor, letting the computer know everything is fine? (But I would like to avoid a check engine light). I know the first O2 sensor is important, but is the second has other functionality than just bitching if the cat is not doing a clean job?

 

The pre-cat sensor sets the fuel trim. The front sensor does not care if a converter is there or not. The post cat sensor will throw the CEL if you remove it or the converter. You can remove the converter, keep the sensor and do the non-fouler trick to keep it happy.

 

Thanks JKeaton, I owe you on that one. That explained a lot!