I'm thinking of installing a wideband AFR monitor this winter. Any recomandations? I see that some types have a sensor which also can read the standard O2 signal, so that you can swap it with one of your stock O2 sensors (no welding etc) Is that an ok sollution?
Thoughts appreciated!

 

I’ve been using this for years.....

 

not sure what you are saying. the ecu cannot read a wideband sensor. aem (30-300) has been widely recomended recently, although i dont like the gauge/display. just stick it into one of the rear bungs. im not sure, but you will probably need to program out the mil (5 sec. for the tuner).

oh, are you talking about the box emulating the narrowband signal? i never bothered with that, but iv read it doesnt work that well. id rather keep the front sensors as is for good cl operation.

didnt see the above. 30-300 seems to be $189. and if you leave the narrowband sensor connected, the mil will not come on, i believe.

 

I used a aeroforce interceptor gauge. It plugs into the obII port and reads all the information from the computer and it has 2 analog inputs. The analog inputs can be several options. I went with boost and a wideband. But the gauge can tell you pretty much what ever the car monitors like air intake temp, rpm, mph, engine coolant temp all kinds of stuff. It displays 2 at a time and you can set it to rotate through like 5 screens. It also has a shift light in it.

 

I have the innovate dual wideband sensors and guage. I put them in the rear 02 sensor bungs on my kooks xpipe (no cats). I rarely look at the guage tbh.

 

yes, thats another thing. never look at the gauge during a pull. car is dangerous without it and around redline things happen too fast. you really need to be logging.

 

Romandian; what do you mean by "mil"?


Silver408Z; you mention you pick up the signal directly from the OBDII, but do the car read any wideband signals from stock sensors?


I have the cats installed, and have heard that you should install the AFR sensor before the cats for accuracy. Not a big deal?


What about the signalcable, what route have you guys used?

 

there should really be a list of abbreviations in the stickies. its the malfunction light that comes up od the dash, check engine, check gauges, maybe there are others. im not even sure, "malfunction indication light"?

the ecu will not read a wideband.

at wot the cats do wirtually nothing, too much flow. a lot of tuners just stick the probe into the tailpipe. iv seen people reporting a 0-0.5 point afr difference and you will be on the safe side.

look at my thread, i tried to document the routing.

btw, cl = closed loop, ol = opem loop (wot)

oh, and wot = wide open throttle, after you read the forums for a couple of years, youll get the hang of it. the tuning forums are even worse.

 

thanks! Allthough I think what you call MIL is usually reffered to as CEL...(check engine light)

 

You need to install a wideband kit complete. The factory o2 sensors are not good for what you want here.

Ideally would be one wideband per bank for better information, but you could install a single unit somewhere, just to give some information.

As for which make ? IMO a lot simply boils down to what sort of display you want. Round, square, LCD, gauge, whatever. There are just so many options these days.

Innovate whilst generally good quality, tend to create faulty sensors far faster and more often than any other brand.

 

The stock sensors are narrow band not wide and not good for tuning from.

 

I’m a fan of the Ballenger AFR500

 

yes, that looks good. bosch and ntk sensors. which are you using? is calibration grade ntk for $150+ worth it?

 

They seem to imply the more expensive sensors are mainly aimed at methanol users ?

The Bosch is a very very widely used sensor and proven to work and be reliable. ( except with Innovate products ). So whilst the NTK was the first wideband sensor and some argue still the best...it's hard to see justification for paying more ( and I use a pair of NTK senors with my ecu, but also have a 3rd PLX which runs a 4.9 )

 

so you have both. great. now what? would you compare, please. offset. always ready. my gauge takes vacation time once in a while. usually before i want to make a pull. did you ever check against quality/lab grade? motec comes to mind.

 

In total I've had 4 widebands on my car, not all at same time, but overlapping so comparable ( well 5 if you count another ecu too )

PLX Devices M300TE, an ancient FJO Wideband, the 1 x NTK wideband built into the Syvecs S6 I used to use and now the dual NTK on my Syvecs S8.

PLX uses the LSU4.9, the old FJO the original Honda L1H1 NTK sensor.
Syvecs the LZA-09E1, or L2H2 as some call it.

Certainly on any of my testing, and I've had 2 sensors in a single pipe and logged then, I seen no real reason to differentiate between any of them and would have no concerns about the information they are reporting.
There have been some minor discrepancies at times but for most part they would read pretty damn close the majority of the time.

I currently just use the 2 onboard NTK's and a single PLX M300 as an extra display and sanity check.

When tuning other cars that wouldnt have had wideband fitted to the cars, I used to use an old LM-1 from Innovate which worked well, but eventually after many years got fed up replacing sensors and have switched to a Zeitronix unit. So far well over a year on the same sensor is working fine. The Innovate would eat a sensor every few months !! They're both on the old LSU 4.2 sensors.

Zeitronix is nice, but the display refresh rate seems a little slow at times, but still perfectly functional as an in car display.

I have never compared the Zeitronix or Innovate data to any others installed on a car at the same time though but with many years use car to car etc, certainly have no reason to worry about what the Innovate reported, and so far the Zeitronix seems all good too.

I've never used AEM's stuff, I hated their ecu's with a passion, which has made me avoid any of their products ever since !

 

so, not to thread jack but pertinent to the conversation....anyone know what the difference is between the regular AEM UEGO and their X-series wideband? simple comparison on jegs doesn't show anything different besides a $20 price change.

 

Supposedly it is faster responding, 33% larger display while retaining the same overall width, ultra slim .2" cup depth, and faceplate buttons for peak/recall, standard/metric display and min/max threshold warnings. Also, it is able to be daisy chained with other AEM X Series gauges.

 

sweet, better gauge...and cheaper. that's a win win. thank you sir

 

Where did you install the different sensors?