Well done
A few skinned knuckles can save a lot money with Rovers. You can be damn sure that a stealership or another mechanic would have just tossed in a new set and tossed you a bill that would choke a horse.
Don't anger the Rover Gods by doing your happy dance. It only pisses them off and they retaliate with bigger issues and what you thought you just fixed messed up again as well.

 

Yes usually before I backed out of the garage after starting.

Unfortunately they did come back tho, along with 0171 system too lean. I'm just gonna grab the front ones off of amazon and put those in this weekend.

 

I don't mind skinning knuckles to try and save money. Bugs me when i skin knuckles and have to skin them again to fix the same problem, but I chalk it up to the fun of problem solving and working on cars.

New front O2's coming this weekend.

 

Seems kind of weird that they came back a little later after cleaning the wires. I wonder if there's a problem with a wire somewhere in the harness?
Either that or you really are running super lean and that's what is giving you the o2 codes as well. If you have, or can borrow, a scan tool with live data. I would pull a vacuum line and add some propane while watching the fuel trims.
If you don't have one and don't know anyone you can borrow one from. You could at least listen under the hood with the engine running. Supposing it's a vacuum leak, you should be able to hear it, if it's giving you lean and o2 codes.
We just had a Chevy Cruz come into the shop with basically all the same codes you have and as soon as I opened the hood I could hear the hiss! It turned out to be the valve cover that had failed in that particular case. But the point is, if it's so lean that the computer thinks the o2's are dead, it's probably a big leak.
Just don't get too stuck on one possible cause. Low fuel pressure can also cause weird problems like this... and probably a whole bunch of other things can too. So, it's always good to explore problems with an open mind.

 

I listened for vacuum leaks the other day but I'll double check to make sure I didn't miss it...certainly possible.

 

Just be sure to get the Bosch 15175s. And even then enough of them are bad out of the box that to me it's been worth it to buy them locally at Advance or AutoZone rather then trying to deal with returns on defective sensors. Life's too short.

 

Thanks, that's what I ordered. Amazon Prime...super easy to return if needed. $50 cheaper than autozone. Love Autozone, but sometimes price wins. ;o)

 

I cleaned mine last weekend (bank 1 was throwing a code) and it hasn't had an issue since. I'm so grateful that I've found this forum!

 

These O2's are a real pain in the a$$. Gave up after an hour, will soak them again for a few days and try again. If I can't get them, I'm gonna take it to a local mechanic my girlfriend uses and give him the new sensors to put in. I'm using the O2 socket, 6" extension down underneath and an 18" breaker bar. Won't budge.

 

About half of the oxygen sensors I do are stuck like that. You have to heat up the exhaust pipe red hot. Then half the time, they still come out with no threads. Sometimes they wipe out the threads in the exhaust too.