i know this has been hit on a few times before and not to beat on a dead horse but ive got a few questions. im waitin for my seconds sensor to come in and i was wondering if its really that difficult at all to switch them out (fronts, ive got 116k and figured it might help mileage a bit) is there any special tips or tricks to know and what results should i really expect out of this. and i asked about ordering an egr valve and the guy said it was like 105 bucks and i said no thanks, ive heard people say its much less than that?
Thanks,
Scott

 

usea 7/8 open end wrench from underneath and do the passenger side first as it's the hardest one to do, total took me about 45 minutes on my '01 w/ 5.4

 

thank you very much, i hope it goes as well as it did for you

 

that special socket worked well for me. dont want to round those things off. 10$ at autozone. yup passenger side first. take off the splash shield.

 

i tried to do it tonight without the special socket and i quite i was afraid of rounding them off, so ill give it a shot with the special socket. whats the big different in the socket and the open ended wrench? Scott

 

tough to get good turns on a open end. not much room in there. wait till u do the driver side youll see what i mean.

 

i went and picked up that socket tonight, got it with my autozone rewards thing, so it was free for me to get it. so ill give that a shot before i pay someone to do it. i think ill have some better luck with it now though,
Scott

 

ahhhhh!! i tried and tried to get the drivers side even lose, i used a cheater bar and all and it wouldnt budge, two days ago i shot it a few times throughout the day with PB blaster, maybe it needs more? some heat? and i took the splashshield off and it got me no where theres a hardline running right in front of it so i cant even get near it. idk im at a loss on how to get to them.
Scott

 

i took a propane torch to that drivers side, thats the only type of heat i had. got underneath put the ratchet between the driveshaft. youll need a swivel socket. then i took a 2 foot piece of pipe over the ratchet handle for leverage and popped that baby loose. make sure its a good quality ratchet because your crank that thing. grab all the extensions you have. i cant remember the combo i used. that oe took me about half hour. have to be creative on that side. pain in the a$$.

 

If you can remove the flange bolts without breaking them and the trans crossmember - stainless steel , they won't break and it takes about 20 minutes .

Then the whole exhaust will drop down giving you more access.

Actually , I would unbolt the exhaust manifold instead - because those flange bolts break to easy and there a MOTHER to replace and drill out - The manifold bolts wont break - there stainless aswell..

I just did this..

 

take out the inner plastic fenderwells- it takes about 5 minutes per side.
you can the get a 22 mm or 7/8 box end wrench on the sensors. you can even bang on the wrench with a BFH if you need to. kind of sa poor man's impact.

I replace both front sensors and had my tools put away in less than 45 minutes by removing the wheels and inner fenders

 

Surrrreee - been there tried that..

You can try it though - it might work fo yuh..

 

good idea about the taking the manifold off. he might still have the original studs though. they are probably fused on with rust. i know mine were.snap one of those hes screwed.

 

tried pullin the inner fender on the passanger side. theres no way i can get in there from there. i tried lol, theres some kinda line running right in the way of it. with 116k on it they are a little rusted. the manifolds. different story, looked at those and one of them is missin part of the bolt, rusted off or broke off somehow. idk. i guess if i cant get it then ill just settle for payin someone. even if i dont want to lol. if i take the flange bolts off and they break what do i replace them with?
Scott

 

and the 7/8s open end wrench was rounding them off so i put that away.