Error codes confusion

[Esby]

First attempt at diagnosing problems with my 2005 Corsa, is giving me a headache!

Error codes are P0141-4 & P0141-8.

Now, I looked the codes up, and all I found was
"O2 sensor heater circuit (bank 1 sensor 2)"
And that description was for the 'P0141' without the final 4/8.

So, as I understand it, "bank 1" refers to the side of vehicle where cylinder #1 I'd located?

I know that I have 2 lambda sensors, but no idea which is sensor 1 and which sensor 2!?

Then after all of that .. I can't find anything about the last 2 digits and their meanings (-04 & -08)

Sorry to sound so ignorant, but trying to learn.. can anyone point me in the right direction please??

Many thanks

[E-bmw]

Bank 1 & bank 2 are generic terms, you only have 1 bank of cylinders, the O2 sensor termed bank 1 is the one pre cat, as in on the Corsa I think it is in the manifold just above the cat.

Best thing to do is to clear the codes & then see what happens.

[TooMany2cvs]

Esby said:

So, as I understand it, "bank 1" refers to the side of vehicle where cylinder #1 I'd located?

There's only one bank on your typical straight engine. On a v, there'd be two.

Esby said:

I know that I have 2 lambda sensors, but no idea which is sensor 1 and which sensor 2!?

1 will be pre-cat, 2 will be post-cat.

1 tells the fuelling what to do, 2 tells the ECU the cat's working.

[Esby]

Thanks all, though confused still with 2 conflicting answers

TooMany2Cvs answer sound the most convincing & logical, so will run with the answer that its my post cat sensor.

How do you know these things, is there an official reference, or is it just experience and judgement ?

[GreenV8S]

Esby said:

2 conflicting answers

The two three answers you were given seem consistent to me.

Edited by GreenV8S on Saturday 23 December 13:25

[bearman68]

Bank 1 refers to the first 'bank' on a V engine - since you don't have a V engine don't worry about it. (A V engine will have 2 exhaust branches, and 2 O2 sensors in each branch).
Sensor 1 refers to the one upstream of the cat. (as other have said a little better than me)
P*****-04 an P*****-08 refer to the type of failure - short circuit,open circuit, no voltage etc etc etc. There's a standard list somewhere,but in practice no-one ever takes any notice of the 04 bit.

Anyway, sounds like you lambda sensor heater is toast

[Esby]

GreenV8S said:

Esby said:

2 conflicting answers

The two answers you were given seem consistent to me.

E-bmw said "..termed bank 1 is PRE cat"

TooMany2Cvs said "<sensor> 2 will be POST cat"

As my err is "bank 1 sensor 2" - these answers conflict.

[GreenV8S]

Esby said:

E-bmw said "..termed bank 1 is PRE cat"

TooMany2Cvs said "<sensor> 2 will be POST cat"

As my err is "bank 1 sensor 2" - these answers conflict.

You're right, they do. I think you'll find E-bmw meant to say "... termed sensor 1 is PRE cat".

You only have one bank. The sensor number tells you which of the sensors on that bank is faulty. They are conventionally numbered with 1 closest to the engine.

[Esby]

Wonderfully, thank you everyone !!!

Happy Christmas too