Can all 3 oxygen sensors die at once ?

Question

The other day my car stopped accelerating and then wouldn't start. I took of the battery and reconnected it and it started. The next day i have a check engine light for 3 bad oxygen sensors. Can all three be faulty or is something else causing this. By the way i ktnow for a fact its not the battery, alternator, fuel pump, or starter, so what can it be??

Answer 1

No. Any number of sensors may go bad within a short period of time, but the odds of any tow going bad at once are almost incalculable, and although anything is possible, three sensors going bad at the same time is as close to impossible as you can get. Odds are, one or more sensor has been bad for a while, and others have followed over time. Since the battery disconnect/reconnect worked, you probably do have a bad sensor that is triggering the auto shut-down mode. As a general rule, any auto-shut-down is usually only activated as a safety measure, such as a low oil pressure sensor being triggered that tells the ECM the engine is going to suffer damage unless it is shut off, which it does by turning off the fuel pump. This information is pretty general, but without knowing the specific the year-make-model of the vehicle, it's hard to get too specific.

Answer 2

By unhooking the battery you erased the computers memory so it went into first start up mode. As the engine warmed up it went into close loop and started controlling the mixture timing etc.A problem with an o2 sensor will now show up and turn on the light. If one goes it can take the others out if it causes a overly lean or rich mixture for to long . Stop unhooking the battery a restarting it as this masking the problem. You need to have the car scanned by a repair shop to see what is truly going on. It could be all three sensors or it could be something like a thermostat running cold. I can not tell you whats wrong with it but it could be all three sensor gone as I have seen it before.

Answer 3

i own a repair shop,in Tennessee,and yes all three of them can die at the same time,,if it got flooded real bad that will kill all three of them,i seen it happen to a Lexus a while back,and my scanner said it only had one bad one in it,but after replacing it ,i still got a code for a bad sensor,and finally would up replacing all three of them before the codes would go away,,but it can happen ,and has a few times,but if your having problems it may have all three of them bad,,i almost busted out laughing when i seen you say its not the alternator,and stuff,everyone on here sometimes thinks that's the answer to any question on here ,either that or this is what the future mechanics are going to be good at,, either way i hope I'm retired by then.,but yes it is possible that all of them are bad and they do get expensive too,i know i bought one today,,90 bucks worth,,good luck,i hope this help,s.

Answer 4

same thing happened to my wifes car. its a nissan . 1 coil went out then they said more than liklely that the rest would go out and they did . spent over 600.00 to replace them cause they just kept going out. then they said that my computer wont hook up to their computer so they think its going out. now the car wont go past 60. still runs though. if your car is new then dont forget about the lemon law. thats what were looking into. ours is 2001. goodluck.

Answer 5

best bet, take it to someone you trust to give the whole thing a good look-over or borrow a book from the library (or buy one) on the maintenance of your particular car (they have them for practically every car ever made)

Answer 6

IGNITION OR
CHECK VALVE TRANSMISSION