Virtually every car produced since the early 1980s contains a sensor
that regulates oxygen flow to your engine. The oxygen sensor works by
sending information to your vehicle's engine management system to help
your car fun efficiently as well as to reduce noxious emissions. When
an oxygen sensor fails your vehicle will run less effectively and
devour more fuel. Thus, when oxygen sensor failure has been determined
the sensor must then be replaced, a costly proposition if you rely on
a garage to do the work for you. However, replacing an oxygen sensor
is a task that you can do yourself, thereby saving you precious time
and money. Let's take a closer look at just what an oxygen sensor does
and the steps you can take to do the work yourself.
As a backgrounder, your oxygen sensor works like this: placed inside
of your exhaust pipe, the oxygen sensor detects the ratio of air and
gasoline your engine is fed. If the mixture is too rich or too lean
than the oxygen sensor adjusts the amount of fuel entering your engine
accordingly. The wrong mix of gasoline and oxygen can increase
pollutants that exit your vehicle - thereby harming the environment --
as well as potentially causing your catalytic converter to fail or
even damage your engine. So, a properly working oxygen sensor is a
must for any vehicle....

http://groups.google.com/group/waterforfueld