replacing the oxygen sensors, reality check

The DIY recommendations are to use a 22 mm and unscrew the oxygen sensor." Simply unclip the connector" etc. Fine and dandy. What's the reality of getting a wrench to spin more than a sixth of a turn with everything getting blocked by the coolant hoses and exhaust on the driver's side? Maybe passenger side is easier. So is there a good link realistically addresses access? Who has done it and what did they have to move? I'm thinking the air box is a must but never mentioned. Probably help to remove half of the adjacent radiator hoses. And spin the exhaust connectors out of the way. Maybe I should start with removing the engine and transmission. I have run a couple searches but they just come back with trivial descriptions. " Loosen, remove ." I can get the 22 in place and loosen the sensor a fraction of a turn So that's easy, but spinning it out is going to be complicated. I already got my big old hand stuck a couple times. Nothing that the jaws of life couldn't fix but I Wonder how long I'd have to lay on the floor in the garage before someone would hear me yelling...

Okay, looks like air box out at least. So get to peek in my throttle body. It looks clean to me. Input welcome.

Well, I was replacing my Cats and replaced the O2 sensors at the same time. So, I put the O2 sensors on the Cats when off of the car, then installed the Cats, then ran the O2 wires and clipped them in. It was pretty easy that way. I'm not sure you want to remove your Cats just to do an O2 sensor change though...

I've replaced a few sets and have never removed anything. You can use a 22mm wrench as you mentioned, or one of the O2 Sensor tools on a ratchet/breaker bar. Once they break loose, they will spin without a ton of force. If you do not see how to do that all in place, it's pretty easy to just remove both cats as a unit. Occasionally they can be in there so tight that the power of 1,000 suns won't get them out.

Yea if they r super stuck it will require a tin of heat and then the threads will likely be f'ed. If thats the case pull the cat and have a new bung welded on.

22mm crow's foot with a wobble will get them to break loose. The longer way is to remove the bumper and heat shields, then remove the exhaust pipes. Then you can use a box end at your leisure.

Make sure you soak them in PB B�Laster overnight as well.

Yeah, actually what I'm saying is it was no problem to break the O2 sensor loose, took 5 seconds with a basic 22mm open end. However, spinning it out is pretty much impossible because I can't get my fat hand on it to spin it with my fingers between the exhaust and coolant hoses. Also the open end wrench only moves it slightly less than a sixth of a turn each time. Unless you have some kind of newfangled open end variety I don't know how you're doing it. And I don't want to pull my whole exhaust when I got the O2 sensor loose already. Also getting access to the connector seems to require removing the air box which I haven't seen anyone mentioned before. Are you guys seriously doing it without removing the air box either?

Removing the airbox is step 1 for 95% of the work on this engine. Yes, it needs removed to access the connectors, but once removed, they are easy to access. EDIT: Plus, you already showed that you removed the airbox, hence why no one was telling you to.

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Yes, you are correct, I have come to the conclusion that 95% or more of the projects start with removing the air box. Haha It's no big deal Once you come to your senses and learn to face the demons of disconnecting the mass airflow sensor, which I have... And, full disclosure, I'm not successful with my internet searches, but when I looked, none of the oxygen sensor procedures included air box removal. I came to that conclusion Not long after starting my afternoon adventure and now wonder what else I should be expected to be born knowing. And, once again, for the life of me, I cannot see how you can diddle the O2 sensor out with your fingers when your fingers are attached to your hands. I did get the driver side out by turning it in increments with my open end until it basically fell out but I am going to want to be able to spin at least one or two revolutions to get the threads started on the new one going in before I can fiddle it the rest of the way.

Where is Tex? I think he says he's done it a bunch of times. Don't remember anything about the bumpers or the cats coming off. He implied that it is easy access with a 22 mm open end and That is true. Breaking it loose was easy.

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See what I mean ? Kris did not remove anything and I can't even hardly put air in my tires without removing the air box. But now that I've come to terms with removing the air box, I'm wondering what else I'm supposed to remove, at least with respect to the driver side. Haven't even touched the other one, yet. Maybe it's easier. Certainly would be hard to get to the passenger side connectors with the air box in the way, or maybe not. That's next.

Lots more room on the passenger side. I recommend starting there as practice for the driver's side. Less stuff to get in the way. As above though, I think it would be difficult without removing the airbox. Passenger side was also easy to break loose. However, much easier to get your hand in the vicinity and twist it out than the driver's side. Old and new. Connectors were compatible. Old ones look reasonable but not sure there's much you can say otherwise with O2 sensors. Am I missing anything here?

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When I did mine two years ago, I removed the airbox. It just seemed like it would make things easier. I don't recall any drama with getting the old sensors out though.

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" Righty=Tighty / Lefty=Loosey"

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Yes, for the benefit of anyone who comes after I will say start with the passenger side. Access is pretty good there. If you have bigger hands the driver side can be a bit more difficult. Getting the sensor to move shouldn't be too hard because that access is pretty good but fiddling it out is easier if you start shoving the coolant hoses around an inch or two as you work. ""Coolant hoses, dammit Jim, I'm an air cool guy." The connectors in the engine bay may be accessible without removing the air box but I think it's tough and better to just remove the Box. They are mercifully easy to manipulate once you can get to them. And they are configured such that Replacements can only be installed one way. I was worried about starting the threads of the new sensors without cross threading but they went in without issue and came with anti-seize already applied. If the weather cooperates I will get the air box reinstalled and do an electrical handoff tomorrow before I go for a spin to give the computer a chance to adapt. Left-y loose-y etc.

I did a set on a friend's car recently. Removing the air box makes accessing the connectors easy. 22mm crows foot. Try spinning the sensor out using the connector wire, I think I did that with drivers side post cat.

Definitely soak them in PB Blaster (or equal) before removal. he O2 sensors had rusted in pretty well on mine. I removed the cats for better access and they still snapped off. I was able to drill them out and just re-tap the threads with a Harbor Freight tap, but it did add a couple of hours to the job.

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Sorry, I will clarify. I do remove the airbox. Sorry I did not mention that, it was already removed in your photo. I do have skinny hands so I can get to them to turn them. If you have them loose already, after you disconnect the connector, you can twist the wire, depending on how loose it is, it may turn the sensor as you twist the wire. That does not help you install the new ones though.

Thanks guys. Lucky for me my car has led a somewhat protected life and there is no corrosion at the sensors. I didn't even need a crow's foot, just a standard open end which had to be flipped back and forth occasionally in order to engage the sensor. I thought about twisting the wires but didn't want to ruin the sensors in case I need to use them for testing purposes in the future. Starting the threads on the driver's side required me to use my fingers like Chopsticks and it actually worked like a charm. In summary I would say there was nothing else that needed to be disassembled in my case. I would advise those who replaced their sensors in the future that this would be sufficient. As for those people who had to remove their catalytic converters, drill things and tap things, my hats off. In this case I got off easy and dodged that thrill.

When I took my exhaust off to pull the engine,, I had the cats laying on the floor, I finally took them to a friends with a compressor, heated them with a torch and used a nasty 1/2inch air impact to get the sensors out.. No way would those have come out in the car.. Heat-pbblaster-repeat.

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I have to remove and replace my exhaust every two years (CA smog test) and the x-pipe fails visual, even though the sniff passes. So I've become *somewhat* experienced in the process to change the O2 sensors in a short amount of time. 15 min to remove the bumper cover and heat shield, 30 min to remove and replace the exhaust, 30 min to button everything back up.

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Nice work. Better you than me. That would have put me back. I'm all buttoned up and have started the adaptation process. Took a little drive this afternoon in Hood River to prove it all works. Now I can get back to other interests and find my happy space like last week...