I got a 96 lx I am working on, with major exhaust soot. It does not smell sweet, but might be oily. There is quite a bit coming from the tail pipe. I have a P0135 code. Will resolving the o2 sensor issues fix the soot? Should I be thinking of other things as well? I saw the service bulletin about wire harness rubbing on engine for P0135.

 

It should help. Without the O2 sensor to put the ECU into close loop the car tends to run rich. The heater gets the oxygen snsor working faster. Means less time running rich so in theory should reduce the amount of soot.

 

An O2 sensor code like P0135 causes the ECU to run the engine on a preprogrammed fuel rich mode. Fix the code.

Start by checking whether fuse 15 is blown and also Ohm test the heater element of the O2 sensor.

 

Great thanks so much!

 

Fuse 15 is fine, and the wires look ok, no melting or fraying. What is the method for testing ohms on the sensor? What levels sould I see on a good sensor?

 

10-40 Ohms across the 2 black wires of the sensor.

 

No ohms reading between any of the o2 sensor wires. Bad sensor?

 

yes