I was reading my Innovate LM-1 manual, and it say to never leave an unpowered o2 sensor in the exhaust as it will damage it.

Well I have just left the sensor in, I have maybe gone about a total of 600 miles of it unpowered. Do you think its toast?

What do you guys think?

 

From what I have heard the sensor is very sensitive and is easily damaged when it is unpowered. I would say you need a new sensor, but there may be a way to check it for sure.

What you are suppoed to do is pull the sensor out of the exhaust and put in the supplied block off bolt in the exhaust bung when it is not in use...

 

I guess, but I mean. Sometimes I have passengers in the car, and I can just be like hey watch out for my wideband. So I just unplug it and store it. That way it doesnt get damaged.

How can I test my sensor?

They arent cheap I hope I dont have to buy a new one!

 

How do you test it, plug it back in and compare current to previous readings. Fwiw, the LM-1 will also work with one of the stock VW sensors that is under 50 bucks.

 

The LM-1 jut uses a standard Bosche wideband sensor. It sould ba around $50 as trochoid allready mentioned.

 

I call BS. At least for the Mazda sensors. I installed one in a header, pulled from an FC manifold. It ran for several weeks during a break-in. When the engine reaced 600 miles, I installed a supercharger and an air/fuel mixture guage. The O2 sensor ran for 600 miles on a rebuild and works fine. It takes about a minute for the sensor to heat up and start showing a reading.

Note: the Mazda O2 sensors are the single wire non-heated type.