SportKa - Upstream Hego

[Prince Rupert]

Can anyone explain what this does? Recently had to have it replaced on my SportKa and had never heard of it before. Had to drive probably 100 miles with it broken. Is this likely to have damaged anything else? Car runs fine but also seemed to run fine when the part was broken! Any info from those in the know much appreciated.

[bigross]

All it does is measures the amount of oxygen in the exhaust gas. There are two sensors on the catalytic converter. The upstream one measures the amount of oxygen before the cat and the downstream measures the oxygen after the cat. The air/fuel ratio can then be changed to reflect how rich/weak the engine is running. The hego sensors can also tell you how well the cat is working and if it is breaking up or blocked.