O2 sensor life expectency
 

My CE light came on yesterday on my 96 polo with 78,000 miles. I took it to the dealer, who connected it to the OBDII diagnostic. He said that the right front O2 sensor was bad. He replaced the sensor and cleared the codes and the CE light went out and I was $226.00 poorer.

I had a bad O2 sensor on this car when it was at 54,000 miles. Although only one was bad I decided to replace them both at the same time. That was in April 2003.

Is there any reason why an O2 sensor should fail after 24,000 miles and only 14 months? Its not like it is a moving part, subject to wear and tear.

Late this evening the CE light came back on again! If the sensor they put in today is defective, no problem. If it if the left front sensor, then that too lasted only 14 months.

Is there anything that could cause O2 sensors to go bad prematurely? (On my 92 pearlie the car went to CDG at over 160,000 miles and 10 years)

The car is going back in tomorrow and I will post a followup.

What I heard/read somewhere is the sensors don't like to be dirty on outside, especially they don't like to be covered with oil and grime.
They have a hole on outside to breath fresh air, if it gets plugged, the sensor will fail.

How long can they last - longer than the engine (at least mine engine :-().

Re: O2 sensor life expectency
 

The car went back in this morning. The problem was a broken wire on oxygen sensor 2 on the secondary cat. I don't know how a wire breaks there since there is no movement of the exhaust pipe/cat to allow for flexing or fatigue. No one, including the dealer, has done work back in that area.

They ran a complete OBDII analysis and fixed the wire at no charge, even though they were not required to do so. Hopefully this is the end of the problem.

I just called Advanced Auto Parts for a price on an O2 sensor for the Nissan 240SX. OEM unit was all of $33.00! Yes, I think the batmobile will remain a garage queen.

Ron.