I became the proud owner of a 2003 MX5 mk 2 Nevada edition (1.6 liter) last week. I’m absolutely loving it!
I bought the car cheap as it was giving a fault code on the O2 sensor. I’ve popped into the garage to get a quote and they have confirmed that the front Oxygen sensor needs to be replaced but at £300 it’s steeper than I’d hoped! A lot of that money is for the replacement part but I have a friend who works for a supply company and I can get the part at cost price. But that means I have to change it myself! So I have a few questions.
How do I find out exactly which lambda sensor I need for my engine?
Has anyone done this without a car lift?- The sensor looks quite well tucked away down there!
The mechanic said it has to be hot before you can take them out, this sounds dangerous. Is this true or was he trying to put me off doing it myself?
Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you so much in advance.
PS Sorry if my questions seem really basic. I’ve only had my licence 10 months and I’ve just upgraded from a Nissan Micra that didn’t need anything more complicated than a bulb change so DIY car work is VERY new to me. Learning little by little though, with the help of helpful strangers such as yourselves.
Does the garage insist on supplying the part? In the past I’ve very occasionally obtained parts myself & then asked a garage to fit them, never experienced any problems with this. So maybe you could source the part from your friend at cost price & then just ask the garage to fit it for you?
I just assumed that this was a bit like turning up to a restaurant with my own ingredients and giving them to the chef! Maybe if I ask a smaller garage they’d be more open to the idea. Thanks for the suggestion. Although my friend still needs to know exactly which lambda sensor he needs to get. What specifications do I need to give him?
That looks perfect! I do know someone with a car lift but he’s very busy and I wasn’t looking forward to trying to convince him to lend me his workshop for however much time it would take me inexperiencedly faff about! If I can use something like this with a torque wrench it’ll save me a lot of hassle. Do you think accessing the wiring would be difficult?
Wear some overhauls otherwise you will scratch the wings to bits. Usually these things are just a case of undoing the wiring plug or working out how is unplugged. Take a good look at the new sensor before you fit it.
