MORE O2 sensor woes

03 Camry LE, 4-cyl. Bought new in August 03. Check engine light appears seven months later at 9,180 Miles.

Turns out bad O2 sensor (the one adjacent to radiator). Replaced under warranty. Another seven months go by, now at 23,800 miles. Check Engine light again...same problem.

Question is: What the heck. Toyota dealer gives some mumbo jumbo about having consulted with Toyota Techline and they are "aware of some Problems" and are working on it. Toyota Techline supposedly sez that there appears to be a bad batch of senors....Hard to believe. Mine car was built in July 03 in Japan. The replacement was installed in March

04 in the USA. Seems that "batch" would be long gone.....

I don't want to be replacing this part every seven months. Any specific suggestions on what I might ask Toyota to do. I have to take the car back next week sometime when they "get the new sensor in."

As long as this circus is of minimum inconvenience to you,..they (Toyota's representatives) may get tired of playing first and actually try to fix your car's problem. That's the issue these days, modern EFI car;s are beyond most service places beyond simply replacing the most likely bit (the damned sensor).

From what I have read, the sensor is tested continually by the ECU (car's management computer). In short the ECU shifts the engine's mixture slightly around optimum, and looks for a correcting voltage from the sensor. If the sensor does not respondoften enough (something like 10 times minimum, every

12 shifts) or not at all, the ECU lights the engine light.

This is all well and good, but what if there is an intermittant connection in the wiring somewhere between the sensor and the ECU? Seems to me the Toyota guys should actually test the sensor before saying it is from a bad batch. They can try a bit harder IMHO.

Jason