An oxygen sensor is a device that measures how much oxygen is in the engine's exhaust.
A car's engine runs because of little explosions taking place in the engine's cylinders. Every one of these explosions has three ingredients: fuel, oxygen, and a spark. When each spark plug fires, it ignites the mixture and the resulting force drives a piston downward, rotating the crank shaft, which provides the driving force of your car.
Whenever a fuel is burned, a specific quantity of oxygen is consumed by the reaction. If there is not enough oxygen present, then there will be remaining fuel that simply will not burn. In contrast, if there is excess oxygen, it will remain once the fuel is completely consumed. In an engine's cylinder, it is best to have exactly as much oxygen as is needed to consume the entire quantity of fuel from the injector.
The fuel comes from the gas tank, but the oxygen comes from the air intake. It's the air you breathe; it can be warm or cold and the oxygen content can vary. This makes it difficult for the car to know how much oxygen is in the air as it comes into the engine. The oxygen going out of the engine, however, is completely sealed. The car's computer can tell how much oxygen remains after each spark is fired. The car's computer can use this information to determine how much fuel to inject for the best fuel efficiency.
When an oxygen sensor isn't working properly, your car will simply not work as well. The engine will not burned fuel as efficiently and as a result, you'll go through more gas then necessary. To top it all off, your car's exhaust will contain more pollutants. Car's still have a long way to go before they stop having a negative impact on the environment, but with an improperly-functioning oxygen sensor, the damage to the environment will be much worse.
Oxygen Sensor Ottawa
