i woke up this morning all fired up and ready to go to work on replacing my rear 2 O2 sensors. I made the mistake of using a open end 17mm at first that proceeded to round off the edges of the nut. Then I cut the wires to the sensor giving me problems so I could get a box end wrench on it but the damage was already too bad for a 12 point. A quick run to Sears for a flare wrench and I was back to work. After a few attempts with different tools I finally got the sensor to turn. I was really happy and started to think I was making progress until I got the sensor out, or part of it. The sensor broke off at the threads.

I'm now at a loss how to get the rest of the sensor out of the pipe. Even if I remove the Y-pipe I don't have any idea what to use to get it out.

Any ideas? I'm going to have to park the Rover until I can get this fixed.

 

Any chance you could use a screw extractor to get it out? I'm guessing it depends on how much got broken off and the interior materials:
http://homerepair.about.com/od/inter..._extractor.htm

 

Try that first, but if you still can't you will have to pull the Y pipe and drill it out and pick out the bits.

 

Would really like to wait until I can afford the other 2 O2 sensors before I pull the Y-pipe. Seems like it would be a lot easier to replace them while the pipe is out of the truck.

 

remove the y pipe and take it to a muffler shop and ask them to weld a O2 bung on top of the bad one (if you have a die grinder grind all the old threads out of it before taking it to them )

i have done this on a car at my shop that the customer didnt want to replace the rusted up cat on .. 2 years later and still no codes coming up so it will work

 

what about just driving it to the muff shop & having new bung welded next to(better access) the old one, drive home & install new O2?

luck,greg

 

Thinking on Monday I'll head over to the nearest muffler shop and see what they suggest. I was thinking just have that section of pipe cut out and a new section with a new bung welded in. Can't be that expensive to do something like that.

 

So I went on Monday morning to Midas and they wanted $180 to remove the exhaust pipe and ix the sensor. I decided if I'm going to pay that much I'll wait until I could get it in at my normal mechanic shop. But I decided to take another stab at fixing the problem myself before I lay out more money. So this morning I climbed under the truck and dropped the Y-pipe. I unbolted it from the muffler and removed all but one nut on each manifold so the pipe would swing down and give me room. After about 2 minutes with the drill the new O2 sensor was in and everything is good again. Only bad part is that I broke the tip off my Unibit. But I'd rather pay $30 for a new Unibit next time I need one then $180 to any mechanic.

I also decided when my front O2 sensors get replaced I'm going to drop the Y-pipe like I did today. It makes access a breeze.

 

congrats! always nice to hear a positive outcome!

PS all of my unibits have broken tips but they are still some of the greatest tools in the box!!