I pulled codes and got a 16 (Lo-Res Fail) and 13 (Left 02 fail)

So I searched the 16 and this is an Opti issue or potentially a bad connection up to the opti. The other day my car randomly cut-off in the middle of the highway without a check engine light. Over the past month I occasionally get a SES light for a a few seconds and it goes off. Sometimes not occurring again for days or weeks.

Now I had a bit of confusion reading related threads.

Will this code throw the check engine light on the dash?

Will it always cause the fuel to shut off causing the engine to die?

After sitting a few minutes and several attempts to start my car got me home and ran like a champ. Same thing today with no issues at all.

I have a hard time believing my opti or anything else could be bad because I changed everything (opti,coil,harness,plugs,wires, and 02 sensors) summer 08 less than 10K miles ago. I suppose anything is possible though.

Running a scan in open loop I noticed the left sensor reading fluctuating around 430mv-460mv while the right is in the mid 800's. I suppose this prooves a bad Left o2 sensor because these should be about the same right?

 

DTC 16 can set without turning on the SES light. When it sets, the PCM shuts down the fuel system. Its not unusual to find this as a stored code, but the fact that the engine died and the code was present may increase the chances that its an active code.

Clear the code and see how often it comes back. What brand Opti did you install? Did you inspect the two ends of the short opti harness for corrosion or pin damage?

DTC 13 means there's an open circuit to the O2 sensor. When the sensor is not working at all, or when the wiring has an open circuit, the PCM reports what is essentially the bias voltage it supplies to the O2 sensor (~450mV). So it would appear to confirm either the sensor is deceased, or the wiring is bad. Swap the two sensors side to side and see if the problem stays on the same side (wiring problem) or follows the sensor to the other side (sensor problem).

 

Thanks for the fast reply Fred... you truly are an asset to this community.

I replaced the opti with one from the partsladi so it should have been a genuine oem part. Now I did clear the codes. But when you say "see how often it comes back" does that really mean see how often my car dies? By the way I interpret it DTC 16 trips for whatever reason, fuel shuts off, and engine dies? Thats a bit concerning.

I did not check the opti harness, kind of a PITA to get to (at least at the opti) but I did replace it same time as the Opti. Will check tommorow though. Is there any way a faulty ICM could cause that same code? I have read that's a common cause to the random shut downs?

I will swap those sensors around tomorrow. Thats a bummer that one would fail so soon.

 

The ICM can shut down the engine, but only the Opti can set DTC 16. The PCM is counting the pulses.... it either sees them or it doesn't. It sets the code when its counted 720 high res pulses without detecting a low res pulse.

But I've seen DTC 16 present in a lot of PCMs where the engine has not shut down. I think it may set on startup when the PCM is looking for the pulse signals. I got DTC 16 quite often when my car was about 4 years old, but the engine never shut down. So you have to sort of see if the appearance of the code correlates to engine shutdown.

 

Last question for me to sleep on. When my opti previously went out it was stumbling/missing pretty bad under any kind of acceleration. That is not the case here at all. Can any part of the opti go bad, triggering that code 16 without a discernable miss as I described?