O2 Sensor Malfunction after Exhaust Upgrade
Thread Starter
1st Gear
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 1
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O2 Sensor Malfunction after Exhaust Upgrade
Hi Everyone,
I bought an '02 C5 back in October and have been getting error P0161 from time-to-time. Sometimes twice a week and then other times not for a whole month. After the first time I saw the message I put the car on a lift to change out the sensor and found that the car had after market exhaust with no rear O2 sensors. I'd have to pull the pipes to see if a by-pass was properly installed, but I wanted to get some feedback first. Below is the code description:
P0161: O2 Sensor Heater Circuit Malfunction (Bank 2 Sensor 2)
I bought an '02 C5 back in October and have been getting error P0161 from time-to-time. Sometimes twice a week and then other times not for a whole month. After the first time I saw the message I put the car on a lift to change out the sensor and found that the car had after market exhaust with no rear O2 sensors. I'd have to pull the pipes to see if a by-pass was properly installed, but I wanted to get some feedback first. Below is the code description:
P0161: O2 Sensor Heater Circuit Malfunction (Bank 2 Sensor 2)
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 16,477
Likes: 26
From: Gone
CI 6-7-8-9-10 Veteran
St. Jude Donor '03
You don't have to pull any pipes.
If you suspect the car has 02 sims, they would be small electrical modules connected to the wiring harness connector up at the firewall. If you find none, you should at least see the open connectors of the rear 02 harness sitting there, unconnected. The rear 02 sensors use a square 4 pin connector. It will be located very near where the front 02 sensors connect to it's harness (a 4 pin flat connector)
Either way, your only real fix is to get the car to someone with tuning software that can reprogram your PCM and "shut off" all of the codes related to the rear 02 sensors.
If you suspect the car has 02 sims, they would be small electrical modules connected to the wiring harness connector up at the firewall. If you find none, you should at least see the open connectors of the rear 02 harness sitting there, unconnected. The rear 02 sensors use a square 4 pin connector. It will be located very near where the front 02 sensors connect to it's harness (a 4 pin flat connector)
Either way, your only real fix is to get the car to someone with tuning software that can reprogram your PCM and "shut off" all of the codes related to the rear 02 sensors.
