RE: 164S O2 Sensor Hell

["Karl Chen" <karlcchen@domain.elided>]

My personal experience is don't get those three wires generic O2 sensor. It 
is very likely you didn't do a proper job the last
time and damaged the catalytic converter.

It is very hard to do a proper wiring job as the wires should
be clamped with proper electric clamping tool not just pliers !
It cannot be soldered because of high temp will melt it.
It need proper heat shield too to protected the wires.
Even the alfa OEM part did not do a good job on this.

Also I don't remember 92 164S has three wire or four wires O2 sensor.  But 
last week I replaced my 94 164LS o2 sensor and it has four wires in stead of 
three wires.  The extra grey wire in 4-wire Bosch sensor is just signal 
ground.  But I don't recommend modify three-wire to work on four-wire O2 
sensor. You only replace it very 60,000 miles, there is not much money to be 
saved doing this, but could cause a lot of reliability problems.  Any damage 
to car's engine and catalytic converter could cost you big hassle and money 
for saving just $60.

Last week, my 94 164LS pass the smog check with HC and CO reading zeros at 
either idle or 2650 RPM.  Very clean.  I am most certain
it will pass the smog check without replacing O2 sensor at this time.
The O2 will possibly last to 90K miles and longer and still
passing smog check.  But I don't care, I replace them every 60K
miles no matter what.  Why ? simply to save my money in a long run,
I am getting at least 1MPG improvement and the catalytic converter will last 
much long and also the engine.

Karl
92 164S
94 164LS

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