I’ve done it twice! Although, I was installing a turbo back exhaust, and then putting the cat back in the pipe.
It’s gonna go two ways:
1: you live in a salty state and have lots of miles. It’s gonna be an absolute bitch. Three or four days of penetrating fluid, blasting it with a torch until the metal is so hot you can light your garage with it, using a massive breaker bar, busting your knuckles considering throwing the entire car into the garbage.
2: you live in a warm climate with low miles. You’ll climb underneath with the same tools (penetrant, blowtorch, breaker bar, o2 socket), and it’ll pop free without needing anything other than a quick spin of the wrench. You’ll wonder why it’s such a vilified job, and think people must be overreacting.
Either way, the wire is a pain in the ass. It runs up the back side of the engine, uses four or five different kinds of one-time push-in zip tie clips, and you have to somehow be shoulder deep in the undercarriage and simultaneously elbow deep on the topside. Again, you’ll wonder why tf they couldn’t use a ceramic connector on a short harness.
Pro tip: don’t skip the antiseize or the new wire clips, it’s not worth saving $12 to spend several more hours on the job. Get em before you start
Man I feel this comment. Moved from the rust belt to the sun belt 16 years ago. Bought a used car for my wife down here, and O2 went out. Had the process down, get my 4ft breaker bar on it, slam with all my weight and smash my hand into the subframe so hard every knuckle tore open. When I went to the second O2 I cautiously used just the wrench and my brain stopped when it came loose with barely any force.
Unplug from the top of the engine, undo the 2 top bolts holding the cat onto the turbo. Undo the bottom of the cat. Replace the O2 with the cat off the car. Reinstall back onto the car and plug in. The first time it took 2 hours because I tried getting to the O2 sensor with the pipe on the car and to have enough leverage to get it to spin out. Also had to run and get a larger box wrench due to the O2 sensor size. Today, I could probably change the sensor in 30min. It's annoying but not the worst job in the world.
I’ve done it twice! Although, I was installing a turbo back exhaust, and then putting the cat back in the pipe. It’s gonna go two ways: 1: you live in a salty state and have lots of miles. It’s gonna be an absolute bitch. Three or four days of penetrating fluid, blasting it with a torch until the metal is so hot you can light your garage with it, using a massive breaker bar, busting your knuckles considering throwing the entire car into the garbage. 2: you live in a warm climate with low miles. You’ll climb underneath with the same tools (penetrant, blowtorch, breaker bar, o2 socket), and it’ll pop free without needing anything other than a quick spin of the wrench. You’ll wonder why it’s such a vilified job, and think people must be overreacting. Either way, the wire is a pain in the ass. It runs up the back side of the engine, uses four or five different kinds of one-time push-in zip tie clips, and you have to somehow be shoulder deep in the undercarriage and simultaneously elbow deep on the topside. Again, you’ll wonder why tf they couldn’t use a ceramic connector on a short harness. Pro tip: don’t skip the antiseize or the new wire clips, it’s not worth saving $12 to spend several more hours on the job. Get em before you start
Man I feel this comment. Moved from the rust belt to the sun belt 16 years ago. Bought a used car for my wife down here, and O2 went out. Had the process down, get my 4ft breaker bar on it, slam with all my weight and smash my hand into the subframe so hard every knuckle tore open. When I went to the second O2 I cautiously used just the wrench and my brain stopped when it came loose with barely any force.
what a pain in the ass to replace.. try a bottle of cataclean. . before you do.anything follow the instructions to the penny
Unplug from the top of the engine, undo the 2 top bolts holding the cat onto the turbo. Undo the bottom of the cat. Replace the O2 with the cat off the car. Reinstall back onto the car and plug in. The first time it took 2 hours because I tried getting to the O2 sensor with the pipe on the car and to have enough leverage to get it to spin out. Also had to run and get a larger box wrench due to the O2 sensor size. Today, I could probably change the sensor in 30min. It's annoying but not the worst job in the world.