Good evening...
My girlfriends car has been giving her problems starting lately. It's a '00 Olds Alero with the 3.4L. 78,000 miles.
The car had something audibly wrong with the idle, but I couldn't pinpoint it. It wasn't a clear miss, just and odd rythem to it... like an cammed motor hunting at idle.
I have some VCM editing software for my ls1 truck, that has a built in scanning tool for any GM OBDII vehicle. I'm able to view a LOT of the PID's that the computer monitors with a few different interfaces.
I hooked up my laptop to her car, and was very confused at what I saw.
Her Bank1 02 was responding very slow, compared to what I'm used to seeing with my bran-new '04 truck. I get a good 2-4 cycles in on average, to each one of her cycles. It was fluctuating between low voltages of 80mv, and high's of 880 or so. That's rather normal from what I understand.
Bank2 blew me away. I'm looking at a flatlined voltage of 8-26mv.
Long Term Fuel Trims: B1 = -9 on average. B2 = -75 hardlined. Short Term Fuel Trims: B1 = 0 on average. B2 = -50 hardlined.
Incredible. It looks like the motor shouldn't even be running.
So I start digging around the engine bay. I see an 02 sensor out back, on the rear banks manifold. But that's it. I don't see an 02 on the front bank. IS there a seperate 02 for each bank?
If there's not, that would explain the very strange data I'm seeing above.
Regardless, it looks like the B1 02 sensor is responding quite slow, so it's probably time that it gets replaced. What's the average lifespan for an 02 sensor?