Need to retrofit O2 sensor; pic needed

[phildg2000]

Hi all,

My brother-in-law needs to retrofit an O2 sensor in his U.S. version 1989 525i.
He is in the Philippines and when he bought the car, it had no sensor. The connector on the ECU is there but nothing is connected. The funny thing is, there is no evidence on the exhaust pipe (area right after the manifold) of any previous connection. No spot welds or screw to cover up a hole. He just bought a sensor and needs to put it in. ECU side is easy enough but the exhaust pipe needs to be drilled or something to make a hole to catch the sensor. Can anyone send me a picture (phildg7777@yahoo.com) of how the sensor should go into the pipe? If not, a detailed narrative with exact measurements will do.

Thanks,
Philip

[E34-520iSE]

Hi Philip,
I have no O2 sensor on my 1990 car (UK). The Motronic unit was pre-programmed at the factory to run without one. Your car may be the same. I am just wondering that if you add the sensor, the ECU will not recognise it?
Anyone else have any thoughts/experiences about this?

HTH,

Shaun

[Chad535]

Hi there,

i know for sure that some E34s came without the sensor, but usually they had no cat converters as well. Is that the case ?

[shogun]

Probably they ripped the cat section off in the Philippines, as there is no strict regulation for emission like in other countries.
But if you want to install it, any muffler shop has a threaded receiver for the O2 sensor to be welded on as well as they know where to install them. It happens quite often that the threaded part breaks off when removing an old oxy sensor in a hurry.

[Dave M]

This may help. Below is my cat-less set-up. You can see the threaded O2 collar just behind the straight oversized section welded in to replace the cat. No problems, work fine. Sorry about the pic size, but it may give you a chance of seeing the O2 collar.

You may want to check into what Shaun said before spending the $$


Good Luck,

Dave M

[phildg2000]

Thanks guys!

The car was imported from the U.S. so I think it's programmed for O2 sensor input. As Shogun said,maybe the cat section may have been ripped off at some time with the owner not knowing the consequence of running without a proper O2 sensor.

Mike, thanks for the picture, it will surely help. I'll print it and bring it to a muffler shop together with the new sensor.

thanks again. I'll let you all know how it goes.