who makes a good wideband?
 

i am going to need to get myself a wideband shortly. I am running a megasquirt currently. What i would be interested in is if the megasquirt can read a wideband o2 sensor itself thus making it a cheaper deal and also make the datalogging simple. Any MS gurus have anything for me? in the meantime, google

Not sure if any of the MS guys have come up with a wideband controller yet. If not my biggest advice is to avoid Innovate. The new Haltech wideband has been working well for us where we've installed them. I've also had good luck with FJO and the NGK, though the NGK box is rather clunky.

I have a two-year-old, 30,000 mile AEM that just lost the heater in the sensor, but otherwise has been a great sensor. The drawback is that it drifted a little over the years and the range is only 10-20 AFR.

Avoid Innovate like the plague, I have owned one of them and will never buy another, two of my friends have also had trouble with them.

The Megasquirt, as it stands, does not include a wideband controller, but with minor mods, can read the output from two widebands (the 0-5v signal)

I have used Innovate LC-1s to good extent, but the sensor that ships with them doesn't last very long. I replaced the one it shipped with after a couple of months of dyno duty, and the one in my daily I replaced after six months. In both cases, after I replaced the sensor, I haven't had trouble with them.

i hear alot of people using the LC-1. what sensor did you replace it with?

Innovate has been GREAT for me. I had the AEM UEGO but I went with the LC-1/XD-16 set up because my AEm wouldn't sync with my Datalogit accurately. Other specs of the LC-1 that sold me was the self testing sensor, free air calibration and fully custimizable AFR spectrum. Their customer support is AWESOME too!!

What happened NODOHC???

I don't know what happened, I know it was wired correctly, because I temporarily replaced it with an older 7-wire LC1 sensor of my friends and it worked perfectly, but I could never get mine to take a free-air calibration. I didn't feel that I had the time to fool with it, so I just put my AEM one back in (works great, just takes some time to heat up).

I was sold on the Innovate for the same reasons, and that I had used my friends in the past with excellent success, this one did not work nearly as well.

If I had time, I would reconnect it, call technical support, and get it working. However, in my book, I shouldn't have to call the customer support service to install a wideband and make it work. I had no trouble installing and wiring my Haltech ECU without needing to call the technical support services. (Which is a lot more complicated than a wideband).

I'm on the Innovate hating band wagon as well.... I have never seen one that did not have problems.

I really like the PLX and and the Tech Edge.

And don't let anybody fool you 99% of the aftermarket wide bands use the same 7200 Bosch O2 sensor, the other 1% use the 17025 sensor. All of the controllers have the same features of sensor checking, heater control and free air calibration, if it doesn't you should look for different product.

You can pick up a replacement Bosch wideband sensor on Jegs for ~$60, which is what I've been using in my dyno cell for over a year now. I've never had any trouble calibrating it, either, which I do every morning I'm running on the dyno.

Edit: Actually, I've looked, and it doesn't seem like Jegs stocks it anymore; you might try summit. It's a reasonably standard sensor.

Dave filled me in on that little secret as well. If you can't find them at the mail order places you should be able to take the old sensor to a Napa type place and have the cross the P/N to whatever vehicle it was on, jot that down and just order from thier on out. Unbelievable really, same sensor sells for 3x that from a bunch of EFI places

I just bought a Bosch sensor last week. Used to get them from a VW dealer for around $50 but they've nearly doubled their price. Autozone has them for $53.99...with a 1 year warranty! So, when it fails from too much race gas I'm taking it back and getting another. Tell them you have an 01 Golf GTI with the 1.8T and you want the pre-cat sensor. Autozone part# 17014

Actually Innovate drives the heater control in a different manner than everyone else. Partly what is responsible for them being heat sensitive (how many other wideband manufacturers need to sell you a heat sink?) and for the Innovate skewing readings depending on sensor temp.

You guys that love them need to venture over to the efi-101 forums and read the love the hardcore tuners have for Innovate.

:rofl: Nice. I like very much. They were also available on some model escalade as well. Id rather say I drive a farfrompuken than a GM though so this works out better ;)

I'm going to make a few corrections here as there are a bunch different Bosch Wideband sensors available.

I'm not sure of which ones that all the aftermarket kits are using, and there are a few different ones. Personally, I'm using a Bosch LSU 4 sensor. The part number @ autobone is 16066. This is their 5 wire sensor that is common with a certain ECU :suspect:

Bottom line is, autobone can look up their part number based off the one on the old sensor. Don't make an ass out of yourself like I just did and rattle off a bunch of cars only to have them grab the wrong sensor :rofl:

The Bosch LSU was $87 today

I've only had the chance to test two, but under extreme duty the PLX devices wideband stood up to the most abuse. I had it installed in my offroad car when I took it to the desert and it took every bit of dirt, debris, high ambient temp, and hard impact without a single problem. A couple months ago I was driving around, and the control box slipped between the seats and out the bottom of the car. I DRAGGED it 5 miles on pavement before I realized what happened... It still works fine!

The Innovate lasted only 2 weeks in a friend's off-road car. One hard hit, and it was done. He's very unhappy with it.

So there's my very odd 2 cents.