That praise was directed towards all of you guys, but if you want to take it as personally directed at you, be my guest ;-) As for the rest of you guys, if I knew how to individually thank each of you, I would go ahead and do that, but for now, consider this my individual thanks :-)

Yeah, it was a fuse tester, not a circuit tester. What's the difference between them so I know what I need to do/should do? I didn't know that there was a difference, I am somewhat new with the innerworkings of cars and the tools needed to maintain them, but I'm learning every step of the way.

What does MIL stand for? Another name for the CEL? The CEL has been on with those codes for some time now, but my car was running fine so I put it off because I was short on funds at the time. Now I am in a position where I need to get things fixed so I can keep my car properly registered and legally drive.

As for when the CEL came on, that was a long time ago, but if I remember correctly, it was when I turned my car on after taking a break in the middle of a road trip. I had been driving for about 450 miles and stopped to refuel for about 15 minutes, then when I restarted the car it came on.

Actually, now that I think about it, I think for some reason I was feeling rich that day and filled up with premium since it was really cheap...would that have anything to do with this problem at all?

Looking forward to some more discussion, thanks again guys!

DEM

 

No crap ranger - no praised deserved here. Not yet. This is still a wild animal.

MIL = Malfunction Indicator lamp
CEL - Check Engine Light
Same/Same

I am still thrown at the codes 'cause the last one in my book is not a heater issue. Still O2 but not the heater circuit.

Demcdona - do you have anyone that can help you - maybe a nephew that's had an auto or electrical shop class in high school?

Seriously. We gave you all the tools I think but someone needs to take it and do some more troubleshooting.

There is absolutely a fundamental reason for all this and it will be found. You don't live near Phoenix do you? - Else I'll fix it for you.

 

Ha, funny you should say that, my parents recently bought a place a few miles north of Suprise, but I don't live with them anymore, so I'm not going along for the move. Bummer. I will print out our conversations and bring them to my mechanic to see what he can do for me. Thanks again, I'll keep you guys posted, and let me know if you think of anything else that might be useful.

Best,

DEM

 

Demcdona, here's some thoughts:

As 87 and Jharger have already mentioned, code P0156 is NOT a heater circuit code. It is "sensor circuit malfunction - bank2, sensor2. (A B2S2 heater circuit code would be P0161). I think this is significant. If we can believe the OBD II diagonistics, then the heater circuit is OK in B2S2, but the switching circuit is not. This is different than the other 3.

The B2S2 O2 sensor is located to the rear of the catalytic converter, and the wiring harness runs directly over the cat. (It tends to sag down on my 2000 Sport). The cat reaches a temperature of 1200*F, hotter than Hades in July, so it's possible that the wiring harness or plug for the sensor has shorted out due to the heat. Since the CEL/MIL light came on after a short stop during a road trip, this starts to make sense, because that's when stuff gets the hottest.

During the new O2 sensor installation, the wiring or plug may have been 'jiggled' just enough to provide good circuits again, for about a week as was stated.

The point to all this rambling is to examine the rearmost O2 sensor (B2S2) and it's plug-in and wiring harness. Maybe un-plug and re-plug the sensor, and move the wiring around to see if that has any effect......

 

That's good info ranger - I have no idea how, where the layout of the O2's are on this thing - so been kind of blindly trying to guide on general priciples here. This is why I suggested another set of eyes on the car - in this case yours. Something like you suggest is a good, logical explanation. If that sensor's wires are compromised, this could be the short in the Fuse 11 we've been looking for and it could cause another code to be thrown just for that sensor, different than the others.

Demcdoma - check that out!

 

Fixed yet?

 

Hey guys,

I've been swamped at work the last couple nights, but I am going to try and get back down to the dealership before the end of the weekend to get this resolved. I will keep you posted, and thanks again for your concern. I appreciate all that everyone has done thus far for me.

DEM

 

Hey guys,

Well, I finally got that O2 sensor problem fixed. It ended up being a problem with the wiring harness that led up to the PCM. The replaced a couple of the wires that were tied in with the O2 sensors and now it's working like a charm. Just pissed now that I had to spend money on a new PCM and eight new O2 sensors when they were all fine to begin with. Thanks again for all your help, you guys really are an invaluable source of help for anyone like me interested in how their car works and learning how/why problems arrise and how to best troubleshoot and fix them.

Best,

DEM

 

Well we thought it was a wiring issue but how did the wires in the harness get messed up? What was the failure mechanism? This is what helps proliferate the knowledge.

 

Has to be a bad fuse, I'm 99.9% sure of that