Anytime you have a car repair that needs to be done that doesn’t keep your car from running, you can find yourself putting it off. It’s easy to feel like the repair is non-essential as long as your car still works, but before you put it off indefinitely, you should calculate the cost of not getting the repair done. A perfect example is replacing your brake pads. Everyone knows that if you replace your brake pads early they are much cheaper to replace than if you put if off for too long.
Another repair that will eat up money if you put it off for too long is a broken oxygen sensor. A broken oxygen sensor is one of the common problems that can trigger a check engine light. You might be tempted to put off replacing the sensor, but first you should consider the impact on gas cost with a broken oxygen sensor.
Your oxygen sensor monitors the amount of oxygen in your exhaust. It uses these readings to send information to your fuel injectors, so they send the right amount of fuel to the engine to maintain the correct air to fuel ratio. When your oxygen sensor is broken, your fuel injectors will send surges of fuel to your engine, wasting gasoline. (You can also experience a stalling or hesitating engine as well.)
When your oxygen sensor doesn’t work, you can use up to 25% more gas than you need to be using. So you will see your gas mileage decrease. If you assume that you normally go through a $60 tank of gas a week, then not repairing your oxygen sensor could be costing you and extra $15 every week that you put it off.
If you have any car repairs that need to be done in Northern Delaware please contact us. We will be happy to let you know what repairs can safely wait and which ones will cost you more money in the long run when you put them off.