Need help with O2 sensor harness--Joeaksa, derkpitt?

[targa911man]

Joe and Derk (and anybody else)--

I've got the same problem Joe had with the car-side connector for the oxygen sensor lead. Car flunked emissions and I got a new oxygen sensor. When I went to replace it the plastic around the harness connector had deteriorated to the point that it basically crumbled when I attempted to disconnect it. The wire broke (or may already have been broken). Joe posted with the same problem a while ago and had obtained a new connector, which Derk said could be spliced on. I haven't been able to find a part number for the harness connector to order one, but I wonder if the sensor side (female) connector could be snipped off and just splice the wires together. The car-side harness wire has a wire in the middle that attached to the sensor. There is also copper wire surrounding the plastic sleeve of the inner wire, but it appears to be trimmed cleanly without connecting to anything. So the whole wire looks sort of like a coaxial cable. Is this outer copper wire a shield as opposed to a conductor? Any suggestions/solutions? Here is a pic of the deteriorated plug:



And here is a pic of the wire:

[Joeaksa]

Dan,

Believe that you are correct about the wire being coax. That said, it does not have to be that type of connector if you are not able to find a replacement.

Using that type of connector would "mate it" to the wire on the sensor but you are not changing these out ever month or so and you could splice in another type of connector then change the one one the sensor side to make them both mate.

My big issue with this is that Porsche did not give you much room to work with and it almost might be easier to remove the wire bundle as best as you could and open it up and pull the sensor wire out to get to work on it. Doing it when the tranny/engine is out would help a lot as well.

Hope this helps...

Joe

[raceman]

l`ve done this before,no problem.The outer copper weave is the shielding for the O2 signal wire within,simply strip the wire carefully and use appropriate connectors.Be carefull not to allow the signal wire to contact to the shield wire or l believe you will ground the circuit.

[targa911man]

Thanks Joe and raceman--I got a spade connector and after I connect it I'm going to wrap it in a few coats of electrical tape, then shield it with copper tape, then put more electrical tape around the copper tape. Should be ugly but effective.

[Carl_Boehme]

My car has the same problem. Hopefully I will get to work on it today.

I thought about using a standard TV coxial connector. If it works I'll let you know.

[derkpitt]

The single wire with the shielding is just that, a shielded wire. The shielding makes a grd at the connector at the DME.
The other two wires (if you have them) are for a heater, one will have pwr and the other will be grd when the key is on. After the O2 sensor heat up it make it's own voltage so not heat is needed.
You can just splice the one wire all most any way you want and not worry about the shielding. It ends at the connector. The wires on the O2 sensor are not shielded. So don't worry about extra shielding. You can just make the one connection and see if it fixes you problem after the motor gets hot.