In the process of replacing my oil pedestal yesterday a sensor, which i believe to be the knock sensor broke off. A bolt goes through it into the rear housing. It's a black plastic cube with a single wire coming out of it. I just want to make sure that it's the knock sensor. And if it is can i possibly go without it for a while as the price is way more then i can afford right now. Thanks for the help guys

 

it's not the knock sensor... I am not sure what it does, actually

but I DO know that it's not required, mine has never been hooked up... it wasn't even hooked up when I bought the car from the first owner, which leads me to believe that it might have never ever been hooked up.

 

It's not the knock sensor, it's the condensor for the oil pressure gauge. Without it you can get erratic oil pressure readings. It needs to be bolted down to anywhere that grounds it.

 

the wire snapped off at the sensor housing. since all it needs is to be grounded could i just strip part of the wire and ground it that way?

 

hey would not having that black box cause my oil presure gauge to read lower then normal?

 

No, no, no! The condensor (it's not a sensor) needed to be grounded. Grounding the wire will cause a short that will at the very least blow the dash fuse, hopefully not frying the gauge first.

You'll need to replace the condensor. Follow the wire up to it's plug, unplug it and plug in a replacement (Mazda or wrecker).