So I am a new Honda owner. I got a 99 Civic DX 4 door this month.
I'm loving it! Even for 140k miles and 12 years old... A great car.

However, it's got a CEL and scans as a bad 02 sensor.

So I go to replace the 02 sensor only to find the cracked exhaust manifold.

Any auto parts store seems to carry this Dorman brand; but I'm confused because 2 models always show up for my Civic. One is quite a bit more expensive; and I just can't really figure out which I need.

Any help?

I'm guessing that the more expensive one has got the lower emissions for California approvals or whatever - but I'm just not sure. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!!

model 1 (cheaper) - dorman 674-439
http://www.amazon.com/Dorman-Solutio...8934728&sr=8-1

model 2 (more exp) - dorman 673-439
http://www.amazon.com/Dorman-673-439...8934706&sr=8-1

Being that both of these are well below the dealer stated $580 for OEM, I'm fine either way.

Thanks in advance!

 

Seems simple to me. If you're not in California get the cheaper model. If you are then you have no choice but to fork out the bucks.

 

Oh I agree...

I'm just trying to make sure that is the only difference and that I'm on the right track.

 

Is there an obvious difference between the Cali and federal converters? How would a smog tech know which one you have or would they even know?

 

Wow! It's a $110 difference! What's the big deal? Is the Cali one more restrictive? How could you even tell em apart? I'm from Cali

 

Well I know the actual difference is that the Cali converters are all OBD-II now which means they have to have I think 90% efficiency which means more metals inside the converter. So we know the federal converter has less metals inside but I'm not sure if it's considered an OBD-I converter or not (80% efficiency).