Joining Space Invaders, the personal computer, and perhaps Sputnik in the pantheon of modern technological achievements is the oxygen sensor. Most every modern fuel injected automobile has one or more of these sentinels threaded into its exhaust pipe. Elements inside the oxygen sensor tip measure the amount of oxygen gas in the exhaust, and convert the ratio into a signal that makes sense to the engine computer. The computer uses this signal, along with input from other sensors, to feed the right amount of fuel into the air entering the engine. If all parts are working correctly the fuel, air, and spark balancing act succeeds in ideal combustion! If the oxygen sensor goes haywire, the engine computer can add too much or not enough fuel. Poor fuel economy, lousy emissions, or both can be the result of a spent or malfunctioning oxygen sensor. The good news is an oxygen, or O2 sensor is about as easy to remove and replace as a spark plug.
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Welcome to the one if by land, two if by sea 50-in-1 electronic playground edition of the Tool of the Week. This time around we’re peering into computerized technology. The 1987 Mitsubishi Starion is a fuel injected car, but by no means modern. The transitional period between carburated and electronically injected engines produced some interesting if not cantankerous systems. The two-injector throttle body injection on the Starion falls into the island of misfit toys category, but the car is equipped with fully transistorized Electronic Control Unit. Any ECU made after 1995 can be accessed with a readily available universal engine code reader to help sort out check engine lights. The only people that had a Mitsubishi code reader back in 1987 were Mitsubishi (and Chrysler) dealerships. These machines were a few steps ahead of ENIAC, and about as expensive. Proving that you can learn and save money on the internets is the forum post that provided the knowledge to solder together this simple engine code reader from a two-dollar 12V LED and thirty-cent alligator clips from the local Radio Shack. Just find the pin outs and count the blinks.
As most all of us have discovered when the tank ran dry, an engine requires fuel to run. As this fuel is flammable and generally explosive, it is kept in a tank away from the combustive action going on inside the engine. This setup presents the problem of how to get the fuel from the tank to the carburetor or fuel injectors that feed the engine fuel. Enter the fuel pump. The fuel pump draws fuel from the fuel tank and delivers enough to the engine to keep things moving.
Early horseless carriages had no oil containment system whatsoever. These contraptions deposited used oil directly onto the ground as drivers twirled handlebar mustaches. Modern automobiles boast completely self-contained oiling systems, but still require that the driver check the level every now and again to prevent the engine from tearing itself up.
While not quite the usual sub 500-dollar car, the Starion will be an omnipresent and endlessly ongoing project here at Clunkbucket. Purchased back in 2004 as a replacement for an Evo8 that was garnering way too much attention from the authorities, the Mitsubishi Starion (aka Chrysler Conquest) has been a source of both enjoyment and frustration over the last few years. Keeping 25 year old machines running is fun enough. Making them go faster or handle better makes for even more entertainment. We’ll share what we’ve learned along the way.
