Wideband Comparison

[niterydr]

Josh, how is the NGK wideband? I haven't tried one yet.

I believe the accuracy for the PLX.

Good heater control, unlike some unmentionables that like to conduct studies.

[niterydr]

Care to share? I put this up as I thought it may be good info. If you have something to add, please share instead of just leaving a completely open ended coment?

In a nutshell.
Innovative and NGK/NTK are direct competition.

A few wideband manufcatures have a piss-poor heater management circuit on their products (aka sensors die quickly unless you are extremely careful regarding placement and thermal heat sinks).
NTK (NGK) and Bosch, aka the 2 02 sensor manufactures had the EPA come down on them for the alarming amount of "VW" style sensors being produced/destroyed.
NTK got together with ECM* (Engine Control and Monitoring) to create a wideband for the enthusist. It is priced very similar to the other popular widebands on the market, and this move is helping to keep the EPA off the doorsteps of the major 02 sensor manufactures.

The NTK AFX is very similar to the ECM AFM1600, a very good lab grade wideband 02 controller.

There is alot more to this behind the scenes obviously, but my official recommondation is what we sell, NTK AFX wideband controllers (we have dropped the innovative line as of a few months ago).

*ECM manufcatures some of the most accurate and widely used OEM level lab-grade wideband sensors in the world, according to my sources.
:draught2:

[Halon]

Why does the EPA care about using the VW sensors I wonder? When I was chosing my wideband, it was between the NGK and the PLX. I ended up going with the PLX since it used the VW sensor which is fairly cheap to buy now a days. And the NGK one used a sensor that was a little more money.

But ya, funny how Innovative sponsors the test, and they do best, and their direct competitor does the worst!

[niterydr]

Why does the EPA care about using the VW sensors I wonder? When I was chosing my wideband, it was between the NGK and the PLX. I ended up going with the PLX since it used the VW sensor which is fairly cheap to buy now a days. And the NGK one used a sensor that was a little more money.

But ya, funny how Innovative sponsors the test, and they do best, and their direct competitor does the worst!

Well maybe it wasn't the EPA, I didn't take notes with the insider I was discussing with.
But the fact of the matter is there was a higher up agency of sorts that was concerned with the amount of failing 02 sensors (therefore showing a huge quality control issue for NTK and Bosch). Since the 02 manufactures were being cracked down on by this agency, they decided to do something about the people actually causing the delima (the wideband manufactures that do not know how to control a heater circuit on a linear o2 sensor).

[Halon]

Interesting. I wonder if the NTK sensors are going to go down in price at all to be closer to the price of the VW ones. That was my main selling point in the end. But man apparently my wideband isn't very accurate according to that test. Just don't know how trust worthy that test is.

[niterydr]

Interesting. I wonder if the NTK sensors are going to go down in price at all to be closer to the price of the VW ones. That was my main selling point in the end. But man apparently my wideband isn't very accurate according to that test. Just don't know how trust worthy that test is.

Best bet is to compare it against something high buck/very accurate (like mine on the dyno) that way you can figure out "about how far off" it is ;).

[Halon]

I know at the dyno day I was watching mine and yours, and they seemed real close. But I wasn't logging it or anything so it wasn't that accurate of a comparison. But watching my gauge and your screen, they seemed very close to each other. Next time I'd like to log it and see!

[scheides]

My wideband on my 2G always read almost a full point lean compared to any dyno I put it on, it was almost scary! This was a PLX M250 or 300, I can't remember which.