Quote:
Originally Posted by ga41
Much less than 10.000km! The last set (on 98 gas) has lasted longer so far. Symptoms of bad O2 sensors are firstly the Check Engine Light and then bad throttle response, rough rev build up and hesitation and ultimately running very rich. But the latter symptoms occur only if you run it with faulty sensors for a long time. Which I foolishly did the first time it happened because the stupid service supervisor said it wouldn't hurt anything if I did...
The 3rd time they were swapped along with many other things to cure other gradual throttle response and hesitation problems but I cannot be sure which particular part made the difference. I'd also had the ECU reprogrammed to the latest, had the spark plugs replaced, the coils replaced, the injectors professionally cleaned, the catalytic converters replaced (they were indeed destroyed inside though, most probably because of the excessively rich mix the car had been running for a time.) and several sensors manually checked for correct voltages. Eventually the problem was almost completely cured but I cannot know which particular part was the one that fixed it. Maybe it was a combination of some of the above.
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It is easy to test the coils yourself and also the plugs before you replace them.
I am not against routine maintenance but I hate spending money on parts unnecessarily. Dealers would probably want to sell you every last spare part under the sun that they could distantly relate to the problem to make bulk dollars at their rip off prices.
When I ordered the o2 sensors myself against the advise from my favorite indy shop I was praying like Hell it was them otherwise I stood to blow about $500.00 in parts and shipping alone. However, this was around half the cost of the spare parts from BMW Australia.
Thankfully on this occasion my research and information I downloaded from my BMW Scanner 1.4.0.9 program payed off in spades.
What made you suspect your cats were stuffed too?