Cobra Runs Rich

[03_SVT COBRA]

I started to notice that my cobra seems to be running too rich, the smell of the exhaust fumes smell like a city bus, so we took the car to ford to get a ecu reflash and ford told us that the car did NOT take the reflash. He said that the car could of been chipped, and to find the chip would cost a couple hundred dollars. Well I thought that was a little expensive to just get the chip out and reflash, so I went home. Is there any easy way to tell if the car is chip, just bought the car a few months ago, without destroying the computer of the car? The car has a few mods, Pro M Racing Cold Air Intake with Mass air flow sensor, and MAC mid pipe with catback. Also one of the O2 sensor reads 0 volts when the car is on. I have heard that Cobra's rely a lot on these O2 sensor's for the best air/fuel ratio. So with all this I need some help to fix the richness of my car?

 

[Cobra03SC]

If it has a chip, it will be on the pcm. Look on the passenger side right kick panel by where your right foot would be. You can unhook the wires and pull it out and if it has a chip it will be in here. You will definitely be able to tell if there is a chip in there, the picture i am attaching does NOT have a chip.

The 02 sensor not working is probably the cause of the smell since the car relys on those to adjust fuel trims. i would start there and replace the bad 02 (they are expensive) or all of the 02 sensors to be sure.

 

[03_SVT COBRA]

All right I will check for the chip later today or tomorrow morning. For the O2 sensor, is it the piece that plugs into the exhaust pipe, before the mid pipe but after the headers?

 

[03_SVT COBRA]

Are there any other O2 in the cobra besides the ones on the exhaust?

 

[Cobra03SC]

There are 4 total, not too hard to spot them when you get under there and look. They look sort of like spark plugs with wires coming out of them going into the exhaust.

 

[03_SVT COBRA]

If my car is does have a performance chip in it, what happens if I take it out. I do NOT have the tuner for the chip. I would just want to know what would happen.:??:

 

[Cobra03SC]

Ive never used a chip i always used handheld tuners, but im assuming it will return to stock calibrations. If you have any mods like a pulley ect... a stock tune + you driving it hard could spell disaster for your motor depending what mods are done. If you were to pull the chip out you would need a handheld with a canned tune or custom tune on it customized for your mods on your car.

 

[03_SVT COBRA]

Ive never used a chip i always used handheld tuners, but im assuming it will return to stock calibrations. If you have any mods like a pulley ect... a stock tune + you driving it hard could spell disaster for your motor depending what mods are done. If you were to pull the chip out you would need a handheld with a canned tune or custom tune on it customized for your mods on your car.

Well, I an probably just going to leave the tuned chip in because the intake system is larger than the stock and also there is upgraded exhaust system. Maybe sometime later i will get a tuner to replace the chip because I have no clue what's on the chip.;-)

Is there any way to figure where the bad O2 sensor is? I would like to replace just the bad one and not guess by one at a time.:bored:

 

[03_SVT COBRA]

Since one O2 sensor is bad and the other 3 are good how do I locate the bad one, because I see the four O2 sensor under the car but they look fine, so it is very unclear to figure a bad one. Just wondering if there any easy way to determine the bad one?

 

[Cobra03SC]

If your car is throwing a code it should tell you which bank its on by the error code. Only way to read the code would be to have it checked, either at ford, with a handheld tuner, or some auto parts stores will do it for you aswell. You said one of them reads 0 volts, find out which bank its on and then you can determine which one it is.