LR3 Repair Woes - Upside O2 Sensor stuck

Silmarillion

Observer
2006 LR3, 115k miles. I gave up on trying to replace the O2 Sensor by myself - it's the drivers' side upstream. My shop said it will only come out half way. If it snaps, they have to drill it out and rethread it. They said this would cost $1.7k (including the new sensor I think). They tried soaking it with oil over night to get it to budge - no luck.

Is this price in line? Of course, it's frustrating going in for a $350 repair and having them say $1.5k is the only way to fix the issue! (they found $2.5k of other stuff to fix of course too...)

Should I consider getting a new catalytic converter at that point rather than trying to rethread something that has 115k miles on it? Based on problems when they replaced the transmission filter/fluid, they said the exhaust manifold is not looking good and would likely need to be replaced. I'm waiting to hear how much the cost on this would be.
 

yubert

Explorer
Sounds like the threads on the O2 sensor bung are stripped. Any muffler shop can cut out and weld on a new bung. Should cost $30-50, certainly not anywhere close to $1,700!!!
 

nwoods

Expedition Leader
Man, reading stuff like this makes me cringe. Go buy the O2 sensor on Amazon, take it to a muffler shop. Even if they need to cut out the old and rethread you are only talking about a few hundred dollars.
 

Silmarillion

Observer
Thank you for the advice! I hadn't thought about a muffler shop at all.

I had already purchased the sensor on Amazon and wasn't able to get the job done. I'm definitely looking into this.
 
The $1700 is probably because the pipe needs to be removed first before the repair can be done. Just my 0.02c on that. In that case, $1700 is cheap cuz getting those header pipes our are a **********!
 

Silmarillion

Observer
I saw the write up you did on replacing the manifold gaskets! Very detailed. A lot of work.

One issue I'm coming up against is that the repair shop that did my transmission filter swap broke a bolt that attaches the manifold to the cat. So now only one bolt is holding it in. If they remove the cat, the thing won't likely reseal.

How hard is it to drill out a bolt here? Do I need a new manifold? The threads being stripped on the O2 sensor in the converter is not helping... I've got one last place to check...
 

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My recommendation if you have the time; presoak everything with penetrating oil for a day or so when the engine is warm. i.e., run it for a bit to heat up the exhaust and the hardware bolts/threads, then shut it off and spray the bolts with penetrating oil. Then after a few hours, (leave the truck off) spray it again with a cool engine/exhaust; the expansion of the metals with heating and cooling will allow the penetrating oil to weep into the threads.

The manifolds are not that hard to get out, just really time consuming (hence, see my write-up again) so take your time and you'll see its not too bad. Once you get the penetrating oil on it for a day or so, I am assuming you can either get the remaining bolts out or cut the head off or sand it off on the cats. Getting a grinder or cutter on the manifold bolts will not be easy but with penetrating oil, I am thinking the bolts will come out just be really careful on the manifold to head as the head is aluminum and do that math on a repair! The manifold bolts are a fairly light torque so they should not take a lot of force to get out, I would do the manifold bolts with the engine completely cold for safety and comfort but most importantly, the bolts will be swelled when hot so this is the most likely time to strip the bolts from the head.

So long story short, if it was my truck, I would be pulling the entire exhaust out at this point to fix it properly with new bolts, threads, O2 bungs/sensors, and flanges if needed. Probably not what you wan to hear, but I am telling you that right now its a lot of bandaids at this point so may as well do it right once and only once!
 

Silmarillion

Observer
Great news!

I went back to my old Land Rover shop, Bear Valley Service in Alpharetta (Atlanta), GA. They got the sensor out and installed the one I provided for $300! $1,200 cheaper than the luxury European shop I was at previously. I had moved to the other side of town from Bear Valley - shame on me for not going back to them first! Check engine light gone!

They also found a coolant leak in the heater hoses going into the firewall and a failed sensor that should have caught very low coolant. They replaced the hoses and tank for $575. They replaced the windshield cowl for $183 (seems reasonable as the part was $95 before shipping online). Replaced a rear light bulb for $5 and no labor.

The first shop found a leak in the front diff at the pinon seal. They refused to top up the diff fluid because it would be too time consuming and wanted to charge $1.3k to fix it. This shop topped up the oil and said it would be about $900 to go ahead and just rebuild the diff, but probably not in a hurry. At least they will help me monitor to see how bad the leak is!

Long story short, go to Bear Valley Service in Atlanta if you cant fix it yourself. I saved $600 & got a lot more things fixed too!
 
@Silmarillion Awesome news. Yeah that coolant tank float sensor is a ridiculous problem; change the entire tank for the cost of a cheap sensor which is removable. I actually am considering making a new float for mine since my light has been on for about a year! I check my coolant bi-weekly an think I am finally showing signs of a small leak near the Delco water pump but have not confirmed yet. I get back this weekend and plan to look into my power-steering pump whine and leak so I'll be doing a write-up on that soon.
 

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