Symptoms of a Bad Oxygen Sensor | Working of O2 sensor

Oxygen Sensor is a very important Sensor. It is also known as O2 sensor. Symptoms of Bad or failed Oxygen Sensor are discussed in this article.

1 – Check Engine Light is ON

This symptom is more likely to occur when there is failure of oxygen sensor. Oxygen sensor impacts on the engine performance by sensing the oxygen amount in the exhaust gas. ECU can detect this data and works accordingly. If oxygen sensor is not working properly then ECU fails to monetize and check engine light is flashed on the dashboard.

2 – Engine Performance is affected

Oxygen sensor failing can affect the engine performance due to misleading the information which is sent by oxygen sensor to ECU. Air fuel mixture and engine acceleration are largely affected due to bad O2 sensor.

Engine Control unit doesn’t know the actual failure so if the car’s performance is getting down you will have to scan your ECU. Then you will probably understand the actual problem for poor engine performance.

3 – Bad Fuel Economy

Fuel economy is also affected because exhaust gas with less or high oxygen is determined by ECU. According to that, fuel amount is monitored and controlled so sometimes fuel is supplied high in amount than required which leads to bad fuel economy.

In this case, the Rich air-fuel mixture is used and burnt in the combustion chamber according to exhaust gas data which is monetized by ECU.

4 – Rough Idling

The oxygen sensor also affects on engine’s idling condition. For this, the vehicle is standing with no acceleration then-No proper combustion takes place within the engine. ECU can’t manage the timing and air-fuel supply of the engine when the O2 sensor is bad.

5 – Emission Test failure

The oxygen sensor is present on the exhaust manifold and sensing the oxygen amount in exhaust gases. Emission tests if they failed with exact exhaust gases amount regularly then you can predict bad or failed oxygen sensors.

For this symptom, there is no surety about bad oxygen sensor but you can check it further for safety.

Working of the Oxygen sensor

The oxygen sensor is mounted on the exhaust manifold to gather the oxygen amount data from various exhaust elements and send it to ECU. If the oxygen amount is high or low in the exhaust measured by oxygen sensor then This condition is controlled and monitored by ECU just by controlling the intake mixture.

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