The last time I went into one of those Amazon returns stores just killing time, I noticed several loose oxygen sensors just floating around. At least one was an actual Bosch and not just a China special. The same applied for many other car parts including fuel pumps, gas caps, etc. but most were just some China cheapo. I even saw some loose wheel bearings just laying in the bins that fit who knows what???
They were all the modern heated 4 wire type. It was $4 day when I was in there so you could have bought a Bosch sensor for $4 which seems like a great deal.
I have bought sensors in the past where you re-use the connector from the old sensor. You just cut and splice the wires, solder, and make sure they are properly insulated. I don’t know how much difference there is between sensors but is it possible to cut the connector off one of these bargain bin sensors and re-use one from an old sensor or not?
I didn’t buy any that day but from the number of them there, I don’t think you would have to look to hard if you went back for another visit.
Are the sensors themselves pretty much the same but just with a different connector or are they different enough that my idea is a bad idea?
If all the sensors were literally the same, or substantially close… they’d only sell a single model or two of oxygen sensors.
There’s a wide variety of engines out there operating in a large range of parameters. To me it makes total sense that there would be a large number of non-interchangeable oxygen sensors.
This is something you should just pass on. Let Amazon keep that pallet of mystery sensors…
That is why I passed on the sensors I saw. I figured they might not interchange like this but figured it was worth asking. You would just have to be lucky to find one for $4 that would fit your car and not be China junk. It isn’t worth my time to explore these places. I happened to have an hour to kill and this place was close. I hit it maybe once every 3 months. Stuff is just chaotic in bin on pallets. You might have a cell phone charger in the bin with the oxygen sensor. I thought I found an oil filter wrench but it was a jar opener. Stuff it out of the packages with no labels, etc. I had to find microscopic text and look it up online.
Again, these places are not worth my time but the parking lot is always packed with people. I guess it is like a giant yard sale and I have never really been a huge fan of those.
I’m sure you can find an occasional treasure among most of the trash. I’d be curious to visit such a place myself
But I also figure… if there were enough “treasures” in those pallets of stuff, Amazon wouldn’t be selling them for pennies on the dollar. Meaning… it’s not worth their time or trouble.
It’s cheaper to have all the returns go to a central clearing house than it is to return the item to the closest distribution center that stocks that item.
Also a lot of the returns are defective or broken, it’s cheaper to sell them for pennies on the dollar than it is to test every return to see why it was retuned.
At those clearing houses and auctions, there is no guarantee that the item works or the correct item in the box, you buy them as is and no returns.
If you know EXACTLY what you’re looking for and have the time to plow through the pile, you can find some great deals on things you’ll probably need in the future.
Even at minimum wage the cost to ship, repackage and the associated paperwork costs probably nears or exceeds the original cost to manufacture so better to sell it for cents on the dollar and potentially a great deal for you.
So show me a 50% off deal on say Bosch oil filters for my car and I’m your guy, send a dozen.!
A 50% deal on something I need to replace every 100K miles or is a PITA, NAPA or Rock Auto is my go to
And BTW, while McGuiver may look great on TV have you noticed that there’s no Mrs. McGuiver?
I can assure you that Mrs. Beancounter would not be in anyway molified by that Great Deal I got on XXX if she or the kids were broken down. Been married for 40 years and quickly realized that any “Great Deal” or “McGuiver” hasn’t been worth the hell to pay when it didn’t work out.
I recently spent a lot of time on Amazon trying to find an upstream O2 sensor for my 1999 Honda Civic. The wide range of choices included lots of inconsistent info about correct applications.
This was one of those times my nearby O’Reilly’s had a good brand (Bosch) in stock at a reasonable but not dirt cheap price. It was designed to fit many applications and had a set of crimp connectors and big instruction sheet with a variety of wiring diagrams.
I decided to do my own soldering and shrink tubing rather than use the crimps.
It worked fine and if it hadn’t my store was only a mile away.
Yep. That is how I see it. I have gone in there before and found some good deals. I think some people go each day, waiting for prices to drop and hope what they want is still there. I go once every 2-3 months in average. It is cheaper for me to pay full price than dig through everything and maybe come up not buying a single thing.
Also, those “great deals” encourage you to buy crap that you later regret since it just takes up space and you end up giving it away, throwing it away, or whatever. They do allow you to plug in electronics before purchase to see if they work but I have bought two items there that weren’t electronic that turned out to be defective. Again, spending $4 on junk is another risk you take.
I figured spending $4 to have at least one sensor on hand isn’t a bad idea but if the sensors themselves are dramatically different, that would be another waste of money so I passed.
A grab-box O2 sensor is a bit of a gamble. Quite a few variables you’d have to deal with. Size, attachment method, heater characteristics, electrical connector. Plus there’s at least two district & incompatible technologies, lambda vs wide-band.
But if only $4, might produce some fun experiments to try anyway.
A wise old mechanic once told me to avoid universal or adapted oxygen sensors, explaining that problems related to improper oxygen sensors may take some time to appear and can be absolutely maddening to diagnose. His words impressed me so much that I not only buy only.name brand sensors (usually Bosch), I replace all four at once.
That’s the biggest reason I don’t use Amazon or eBay for auto parts. Just maybe accessory type garbage, like mud flaps, window vent visors or such.
I once replaced a factory Denso sensor with a Bosch and had strange driveability issues. The only thing I could think was that the sensor was causing this. I replaced with a new Denso just to see and that was it. Both were specified to fit the car.
I am not sure what the deal was but it certainly was a night and day difference with the OEM sensor. I seem to recall the Denso also being quite a bit cheaper than the Bosch. I figure the ECM is calibrated to work with one sensor type the best even though on paper they should be the same.
I know. I figured that my cars running Bosch might be fine by cutting off the connector and swapping it. I guess even though the wiring is similar, the sensors themselves vary for their intended application, even within the same brand, which makes sense. I wasn’t sure how similar the sensors were.
I figured it might be worth having one on hand for a quick fix, especially for $4 but that sounds like just a waste of money. I didn’t buy any but from what I saw the day I was at this place, finding random car parts is not an issue. The issue is that there will be an unlabeled jar lid opener in with this stuff. Also, a lot of the car parts are just China crap!
