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CEL/O2 Sensor problem?
OK, over the past couple months, my check engine light has come on on 3 different occasions. The first time was when a friend direly needed to borrow my car, drove it 15 minutes away, picked something up and drove it 15 minutes back. Now he took the highway, and who knows if he babied the car like he said he did or not. Anyway, the CEL came on 2 minutes before he arrived, I went out to check the car after, started it, and there was no light.
I didn't see it again until a few weeks later when I was driving back to school from spring break, yet it didn't go on on the way home at the beginning of break. During the ride it went on, I was kind of ****ing arround at 100mph a few times, just feelin VTEC in 5th gear. I don't know if it was the speed that caused it or what, but immediately after it came on, I pulled over, popped the hood, checked everything out and everything seemed fine. I turned off the car, started it up again, and the light was gone. That was that.
Well today I was driving back to school from home again (which is a 180 mile drive) and after about 150 miles, the CEL came on again. I don't lose a single bit of power while its on either, I don't notice a single difference. So a couple minutes after it went on, I restarted my car while I was still moving. The light immediately went off. Everything seems fine and I am wondering what the hell it could be. I'm thinking (hoping) its my O2 sensor getting old. So I'm driving, trying to think about what could be going on, and i realize my cabin is darker than normal. I look at my A/F gauge and it's hardly even reading in the red. (normally it works fine, bouncing back and forth, anytime I floor it, it sticks in the green/rich). So I floor it a few times, downshift, and nothing I do will bring it out of the red. So I kind of start freaking out, thinking that I'm running too lean, then I decide its just my sensor going bad or something. Then finally my CEL comes on again, and my A/F gauge NOW won't even register red. It's completely out. I figure out that I can just barely get one red notch lit right after I let off the pedal when I give it gas. So I drove the final 15 miles or so with the CEL light on. I get off on the exit ramp, as I downshift, my a/f gauge light progressively gets higher towards stoich. In first and second gear I can get it into stoich only when I floor it, otherwise it stays in the red. Finally I reach a light, shut off my car, restart it, everything's back to normal- my a/f gauge is back to normal, no CEL light, like nothing ever happened.
Sorry for the length, just trying to be as detailed as possible. Has anyone had a similar experience? I'm hoping it's my O2 sensor going bad, but doesn't it just go bad? Why would it work after I restart my car?
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