Can I use generic CO2 sensor, like these?

[tjts1]

I didnt see that those were that cheap. I would be sure to solder the connections though, less resistance and less chance of seeing issues with the crimps

Yep, sent from my rooted, rommed Galaxy Nexus....

Solder is more likely to crack when used on loose wires or a wiring harness exposed to vibration or flex. Crimp is more reliable in this situation.

$55 extra just to avoid crimping 4 wires?

did you actually read the post before you laughed about it? Because that (in bold) is not what it says.

Oh touchy

The advice has nothing to do with avoiding wire crimping, it doesn't take much effort or brain power to crimp wires. The point is that often, crimping doesn't work with O2 sensors. If it's working for you, maybe you could give a little detail on how you did it, that might help someone ...

Says who? Do you have a source for that claim? Crimping was perfectly reliable on about a dozen narrow band O2 sensors and 2 wide bands that I've replaced thus far. How many O2 sensors have you tried to crimp?

There have also been discussions on this on the board about soldering, again because of the conditions it is exposed to, I think soldering is even more likely to be inadequate. Just relaying what I've read, don't mean to be a killjoy ...

Aww come on. Tell us how you really feel.

[bigdaddylee82]

I wasted money on the Bosch universal crimp O2 sensor from FCP. I used the connector that came with it, and got a CEL, I used heat shrink/solder crimp connectors and got a CEL, I soldered and heat shrunk the wires together and got a CEL, I went to the parts store and bought the correct Bosch O2 senor with the proper terminated end, no more CEL.

For what it's worth I cut my rear (down stream) O2 sensor, in an attempt to use a dummy sensor I wired in it's place. The dummy sensor worked for a few months but I eventually got a CEL. When I got tired of resetting the CEL I tossed the dummy sensor and successfully soldered the wires back together, no more CEL.

For the front (up stream) O2 sensor, I believe the issue is as much with the sensor as it is the cut-and-crimp connector.

I'll never waste money on a universal one again, not on a Volvo anyway.

YMMV

- Lee

[JimBee]

If in fact a sensor that's not specified for the 850 has worked for others and might work for me if I installed it correctly and it's a lot cheaper then I'm of the experimenting mindset.

From posts on this and one I think I remember reading on here, I get that FCP's universal is not right for the 850. But the two that posters have said worked for them, hmmm. Not a huge sample, but still if they worked on two 850's, why wouldn't they work on a third one? And both are in the range of $50.00 cheaper than the spec.

But two questions: color coding of wires. How would I know which wire to connect to which?

Would crimping and dropping a little solder into the ends of the crimp connector interfere with the micro-voltage transmission?

[erikv11]

I agree it might work if you are careful, that's a point I was trying to make. The person in the thread who has had the most good experience is tjts. Be really nice, maybe you can get him to post more than "haha look i don't read well and i just know i can make you mad!"

[madspeed50]

Negative, the direct fit sensor for the front is Bosch 15097: https://www.amazon.com/Bosch-15097-Oxyge ... B000BZI3G2[/quote]


I stand corrected. This is the correct one.

Yep, sent from my rooted, rommed Galaxy Nexus....

[madspeed50]

You should never solder a O2 sensor wire because the sensor "will breathe" through the cable. The acceptable method of splicing or repairing O2 wiring is with crimp connectors. This information was from Bosch Technical Staff in Europe.


copied from a post on turbobricks

Yep, sent from my rooted, rommed Galaxy Nexus....

[JimBee]

Madspeed50:

Okay, that's helpful info.

Do you have a link to the turbobricks page?
Thanks

[madspeed50]

oops, it was brickboard. heres a link

http://www.brickboard.com/RWD/volvo/131 ... wires.html

Yep, sent from my rooted, rommed Galaxy Nexus....

[JimBee]

On first thought, some things sound, well, preposterous. Extremely sensitive devices that "breathe through the insulation on the wires and transfer oxygen down the wire itself in a continuous microscopic flow that is steady enough to be measured accurately." Imagining that was beyond my capacity for new things.

So I went to the Bosch site to get more info and guess what—that's exactly what the picture shows.
Check it out:
http://www.boschautoparts.com/m/Pages/O ... esign.aspx

ps: the picture actually suggests that the wires breathe, so if a person were going to splice, the best place to make the spice would as close to the connector as possible.
What do you think?

[erikv11]

I like that picture, thanks for the post. The pic also underlines another point about O2 sensors: you can't clean them, the sensor is the ceramic element inside, not the protective metal jacket you can see when looking at it. So many people say "Try cleaning the O2 sensor if it has a lot of carbon buildup ..." and that just won't help.

On the splice question your idea makes sense but I just don't know, so I have to go with no comment. But thanks for working to figure it out!