In this How To video, J shows you how to change an oxygen sensor. He goes over how to remove an old, dirty O2 sensor, and install a brand new BuyAutoParts replacement oxygen sensor on many vehicles. This specific job was done on a 2003 Dodge Ram. Some of the processes seen here are specific to this exact vehicle application.
Tools Needed
- Open Headed Wrench
- O2 Sensor Socket Wrench (optional)
- 22mm Sockets *
- Oxygen Sensors
*Sizes vary between vehicles
Transcript -
Hi everybody. This is Jay for BuyAutoParts with the "We Make it Easy" Video Series. Today, we’re going to change the O2 sensors on a 2003 Dodge Ram pickup truck. We’ve got our quality replacement sensors with actual flip right on there. So it’s going to be really easy plugging into the factory wiring harness. All you’re really going to need for this is either a 22mm open wrench or one of these fancy little open-sided O2 sensor sockets, which can be purchased at any auto parts store. And just going to get the truck up off the ground a little bit, crawl under there, pull the sensors off, replacing with the new ones, and we should be good to go.
So today on this truck, we’re actually going to be changing all 4 sensors as preventative maintenance measure. We did get an error for the bank 2, sensor 2. And you may hear that when reading on the Internet when you’re purchasing your parts. Bank 1 is actually going to be the driver side on this vehicle, and bank 2 is going to be the passenger side. On different cars, they refer to these things differently. If you have a front-wheel drive car, it’s actually a front and back rather than a left and right. So you want to be specific with that when you’re ordering your parts. And if you have any questions, of course you can call and talk to one of our service reps and they’ll help you out. Bank 1 and bank 2, and then you’ve also got in this case a sensor 1 and sensor 2 on each bank. So there are 4 sensors total. By sensor 1, we’re referring to the one that comes before the catalytic converter; and sensor 2 is the one that comes after the catalytic converter. There are two catalytic converters on this; one on the driver side, and one on the passenger side. So bank 1, bank 2, sensor 1, sensor 2. Right now, because we have the easiest access to sensor 2 on the bank 1 side, we’re going to start there. And we’re just going to use an open end 22mm wrench to break that free. And it should be finger-tight now and we can go ahead and twist that off. Again if you live in an area where rust is a problem, you might want to soak this is some sort of a solvent PB Blaster or WD-40 to help break that free. I’m going to go ahead and reach the wrench up here now and go ahead and loosen our other sensor. And this is going to be a little bit difficult to see because the connectors are actually up in the transmission tunnel here. And then I’m going to reach my hands up in there. It’s basically standard clip here where there’s a little connector lock that you’ll just push down. So the ones that are in there, we’re going to push that tab down and pull it out. And then we put the new one in. Make sure it’s configured the correct way. Push it in till it clicks and you’ll be all set.
Alright, we’ve got the old sensor out and we’re going to put the new sensor in. And we’re going to start at the top with bank 1 sensor 1. Thread it in, got my wrench. Make sure that’s good and snug. Simple as that. Reach up in there and get that plugged in. We’ll go here to bank 1 sensor 2. Get thqat nice and snugged up. Plug that in up here. That’s it. Then we move to the passenger side with the bank 2.
Okay, and we’re going to start now on the passenger side with bank 2 sensor 2. Getting the wrench in there. Pin that one out at the top. Sensor out. Snug that down. Clip back in and the last of the 4 sensors. Now we’re on bank 2 sensor 1 here. Break that free. Screwed in. Wrench back up in there. So we get back into our connector. And we’re on our way.
