Quick fix, Macgyver Style

Hi, if the sensor is contaminated it can probably be repaired by dipping the tip in an ultrasonic cleaning bath. I've also looked into cleaning using a Maplins ultrasonic mist generator (about £8)

Hope this helps. -A

Gasoline sold in Brazil has 25% ethanol

The crappy kind of gas sold here in Brazil contains 25% of ethanol, (government mandatory), so damaged lambda probes around here won't happen because of Ethanol, but because several other illegal stuff is mixed with gas, (in dodgy petrol companies, that is). Buy your lambda probes from Latin America's (insert Auto manufacturer here) divisions and you won't have problems... or get your gas analyzed, it probably isn't ethanol the source of contamination.

But yes, unprepared engines will suffer badly from ethanol contamination. Around here we suffer from catalyst /muffler converter meltdown, instead.

Lambda sensor life

I presume your claim of 30-50,000 mile life for lambda sensors came by typing "lambda sensor life" into Google and reading off the preview of the first result.

Actually, lambda sensors last a lot longer than that if the car is well maintained and the fuel mixture is correct. And you don't use rubbish supermarket petrol.

My last car was stil going strong on its original lambda sensor when I sold it at 190,000 miles, and the previous one at 220,000 miles.

Cheers

teacake

Where's the cheap petrol?

So... if all this petrol has been replaced with 'uncontaminated' stock, where can I get the 'bad' stuff? My car doesn't have a lambda/oxygen sensor and I'd like to do my bit to prevent waste...