02 SENSOR removal issues

giguchan

giguchan

Senior Member
Hey Gang,
Ok goes like this... I have a rusted to crap 02 sensor that i cant break free.- See Below... I have had a few people look at it including a indie shop and the dealer. I have been told that my only hope is to go to a muffler shop and have them cut out the offending pipe from the CAT back and before the TRD muffler(sensor 2) somehow Get the old sensor off the old pipe and weld the section back with a new sensor.

Has anyone ever done this before? I dont know if they sell sections of pipe with the mounting for a sensor already on it.

The forward sensor was a breeze.. i was able to remove it clean up the threads and the mounting and re install it using new nuts/gasket from the dealer and anti seize compound. she's good to go.

Any advice is welcome.
Thanks.
 

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Mine looked the same as yours!Take a wire brush to them and try to get a hold of a welder.Weld some larger nuts over the existing ones.This way you'll have some surface to wrench on and the extreme heat will make it easier to break them loose.
 
Mine looks the exact same way and it need to be replaced as well.
I'll let you know what I come up with, if any?
 
Hey there..
I should have mentioned it before.. i pretreated the day before with PB great stuff... i think that might have been why the forward sensor came off with out a hitch... also not in the path of road salt grime like the other one is..

Welding a bigger nut on top of the smaller one is a great idea! thanks for that suggestion! that might work!

Thanks Red! keep in touch
 
You guys are way over complicating it. Mine were worse than that. Get a torch and get them glowing red, then break them loose with vice grips. It's ruin the nut but after about 5/6 turns they'll spin off by hand. (just let them cool first, they'll be real hot). Buy new nuts and replace your O2 sensor.
 
It should, I've never seen that method fail. Just have to get them glowing hot.

OP, looks like you have to do a little floor patch there too man. Might not be a bad idea to do it now. Drop the exhaust (it'll give you more leverage on the O2 anyway) and take care of that floor board.
 
Pit,
Thanks for the suggestion.. i was just talking to a buddy who works at the local Meneike has acces to a torch. we will try this too. seems to be a good solution to this problem.I have already the new gasket,OEM nuts,Sensor. your method... wont screw up the threads?


I will take a long look at the floor boards too... i had not though about about them..
thanks
 
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Mine looked worse than that and came off with a little work. The studs are MUCH harder than the nuts, so the approach is to break the nuts into pieces. Use progressively smaller (cheap) sockets banged on with a hammer and alternate cranking down with Vise-Grips. On some nuts, you can only get the small Vise-Grips on there. I was ready to use a torch as PBR suggests, but I didn't need to. With enough pressure, the nuts start to break up. Just keep at it.
 
TheDurk said:
Mine looked worse than that and came off with a little work. The studs are MUCH harder than the nuts, so the approach is to break the nuts into pieces. Use progressively smaller (cheap) sockets banged on with a hammer and alternate cranking down with Vise-Grips. On some nuts, you can only get the small Vise-Grips on there. I was ready to use a torch as PBR suggests, but I didn't need to. With enough pressure, the nuts start to break up. Just keep at it.
Click to expand...

You are assuming he has an original Toyota bung/flange, which it does not appear to be. The front sensor, although rusty clearly has good studs and he was able to remove the rusted nuts without too much hassle. The rear sensor flange was obviously replaced at some point in time with an aftermarket unit and is corroding badly. My truck is EXACTLY the same way. I think muffler shops just cut the good flanges off at the first sign of rust and use their own inferior quality junk to replace it with. I'm sure they assume that the owner will have sold the vehicle on by the time it rusts out again. And if not it's more $$$ in their pocket when the new one rusts out.
Anyway, torching the nuts appears to be your only shot as the studs look pretty far gone. Otherwise it's time for a new bung.
 
All,
thanks for all of the suggestions! This actually the 2nd TRD exhaust i have had on the truck. The first one rusted so bad that i had to have it replaced.The dealer had one of their people come in and say"yeah, give him another one" then i was good to go.. but shortly after that exhaust tip started to fall apart. I when to the local off road shop and got better higher quality one, clamped on and at $60 i was in business.The funny thing is at this point the tip looks better than all of the pipe! The muffler still looks and performs well. I'm hoping that once it get them off it might be a good idea to re cut the threads(i think i am saything that correctly) to fit the OEM nuts.

Tad chilly here in NY.. hopefully this weekend i will have another go at it with better news to report back with.. thanks for everything...
 
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one of my O2's is welded on because of that same rust issue. i had a dude at a parts store tell me i ruined it by doing that, but he's WRONG. it has been working properly for well over a year now.
 
Cord,
Thanks for the reply... i'm going to have a go at this this weekend that is unless the snow is as bad as it's supposed to be.
 
SkidPalace said:
You are assuming he has an original Toyota bung/flange, which it does not appear to be. The front sensor, although rusty clearly has good studs and he was able to remove the rusted nuts without too much hassle. The rear sensor flange was obviously replaced at some point in time with an aftermarket unit and is corroding badly. My truck is EXACTLY the same way. I think muffler shops just cut the good flanges off at the first sign of rust and use their own inferior quality junk to replace it with. I'm sure they assume that the owner will have sold the vehicle on by the time it rusts out again. And if not it's more $$$ in their pocket when the new one rusts out.
Anyway, torching the nuts appears to be your only shot as the studs look pretty far gone. Otherwise it's time for a new bung.
Click to expand...

You're right. Looking at it more closely, I had less nut but more stud, which is a much better situation than the OP's.
 
I had the exact same issue with my T4R after living in upstate New York. I used something called "aerokroil" and it makes PB Blaster look like glue. This stuff really penetrates deep. After some aerokroil, a little heat from a butane torch, I took a pair of vice grips and tightened down on the rusted nut. In just a few turns, that rusted out nut came off. One came off in pieces but it did come off. I replaced the nuts with new ones from the dealer. Good luck! (I had the same hopeless feeling you probably have/had but they did come off without having to cut or weld anything!!!!!
 
Hopeless?
you aint kidding..
I just ran into a bus full of orphans going over a cliff while the bus while on fire - even they had a sunnier outlook on life!

The dealer had me thinking that i was going to have to buy another system from the Cat back. the system IS a OEM TRD exhaust so why it rusted so BAD is beyond me. I mean if i had the exhaust installed at any muffler shop and knowing what cheap metal they use i could understand but i had the whole thing does at the dealer where i bought the truck.

I'll report back over the weekend with better news... I aint licked yet.
 
giguchan said:
Hopeless?
you aint kidding..
I just ran into a bus full of orphans going over a cliff while the bus while on fire - even they had a sunnier outlook on life!

The dealer had me thinking that i was going to have to buy another system from the Cat back. the system IS a OEM TRD exhaust so why it rusted so BAD is beyond me. I mean if i had the exhaust installed at any muffler shop and knowing what cheap metal they use i could understand but i had the whole thing does at the dealer where i bought the truck.

I'll report back over the weekend with better news... I aint licked yet.
Click to expand...

If you want to bring it to Philly AND bring the real life version of your avatar, I'll work on it for you.
 
Pit,
That is a very generous offer... If i Knew who this lovely lady was i'd be more than happy to offer her up as an incentive! Sadly, she is just another one of those Inet images that i believe live in this world- i wish mine.. I'm sure that somewhere someplace she does exist- like the twilightzone....(cue the creepy music)

It's good to know that you are so close by! I love Philly.. I took the train there a bunch of times during the summer to hang out and to take pictures... Photography is a hobby of mine.


I'll be working on it today. I will let you all know how i make out... thanks for all of the support...
 
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