Running lean

Jabber88

Lurker
Nov 6, 2016
11
8
0
St. Louis
Hey everyone,

So I recently took my car to BMW for a new o2 sensor. Since then my AFR's have been nothing but lean. Everytime I get near the gas sometimes even just idling I've seen 20:1 but the car has no symptoms and if it wasn't for my jb4 I wouldn't even know. I been waiting for it to throw a code but it's been two weeks now and nothing. The car targets boosts and holds boost fine with no codes even after racing and beating another tuned 335i which I didnt expect.

I did take the car back to BMW and asked them check the car. They said everything was ok but I could use a walnut blast which they were only going to charge me $1000 for lol. I obviously declined that paid my 220 for diagnostics and left a little discouraged.

Anyone have any ideas what this could be besides oxygen sensors and is there anyway to test O2 sensors?
 
Last edited:

Icewall

Lurker
Nov 3, 2016
18
13
0
NJ
just replace the o2 sensors. very common. my car would hit 20:1 on the jb4 readout. I could get it out of that state and it was fine for months. eventually both o2 sensors failed and it threw codes.
 
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Jabber88

Lurker
Nov 6, 2016
11
8
0
St. Louis
Thanks for the input. I'm hoping it's just the O2 sensor. I've been waiting to put on my dp and fmic until I got this figured out.

Is there anyway to test the O2 sensors?
 

BrettJP

Private
May 30, 2017
41
9
0
Ride
08 335xi e92
I know this is really late, but...

You can test O2 sensors with a multimeter. The idea behind these kinds of sensors is simple, the more oxygen in the sampled air, the more the sensor will conduct electricity. I don't remember the exact numbers, but if you read something stupid low or even zero, or something stupid high, the sensor is almost surely bad. But at the same time of course, the sensor could indicate a problem somewhere else like a vacuum leak, so make sure to do your due diligence in investigating possible related issues.