PLX m-500 experiences?

[Sean485]

I'm lookiing at buying a PLX M-500 wideband setup and i've got a few questions for anyone that has one, or at least has used one.

1) How do you like it? Good/bad points vs other wideband controllers?

2) Whats the range and stability of the wireless connection? Should I purchase the direct link wire or will the wireless be stable enough for logging with the laptop in the car?

3) Will leaded gas have an adverse affect on the life of the bosch O2 sensor?

4) If you feeding the narrowband output from the controller to the ecu instead of using a stock O2 sensor has your gas mileage (especially highway/crusing mileage) improved, gotten worse, or not really changed?

5) Are you using the sensor in the stock O2 housing location or do you have it mounted further down in the DP? If it isn't in the stock location how far away from the turbo did you put it?

6) How many miles do you have on the sensor, has the sensor ever needed replaced and if so what was the mileage on it when it died, where did you have it mounted and did you use leaded gas?

Sorry for all the questions but I want to make sure that if i'm going to be spending 500 dollars on a wideband that it is going to be reliable and that I will get my moneys worth out of it.

Thanks, Sean.

 

[danl]

My buddy got one for his turbo crx and I installed it for him. I love the narrowband output. He doesen't drive his car much but I believe the gas milage has remained the same. Lets put it this way, the wideband output cycles around 14.7 or soich at normal driving conditions. The unit comes with a fairly bulky connection, i'm not sure where you will be able to squeeze this past the firewall on a DSM. I cut the wire and soldered it up for him to lenght. He doesen't run racegas through his car but supposidly the Bosch sensors are OK with lead, but they are very economically priced so its really not an issue. He has the O2 sensor mounted in the first bend of the downpipe. The instructions however show you where proper mounting locations are.

Overall I think its the best unit for the money.

 

[guitarXgeek]

Quite a few people on the dsmlink forums use the PLX WB and are very happy with it. No complaints yet. I don't suggest taking out your stock narrowband and using the PLX narrowband output, though. Some have claimed to get better gas mileage with it set up that way, but I doubt the sensor will hold up to the exhaust heat right there at the o2 housing for very long. If it's any consolation, I am 100% sure that I will be purchasing the PLX WB unit for my car in the near future.

 

[Sean485]

I don't suggest taking out your stock narrowband and using the PLX narrowband output, though. Some have claimed to get better gas mileage with it set up that way, but I doubt the sensor will hold up to the exhaust heat right there at the o2 housing for very long.

Yea, I wasn't intending to put it in the O2 housing in place of the stock O2 but I forgot to mention that. I'll just build a custom O2 housing w/o an O2 bung in it and weld a bung in the dp. I was just curious about the narrowband output affecting gas mileage because the car just killed its 3rd stock oxygen sensor in just over a year and for the cost of stock sensors I could almost have paid for the wideband by now but I dont want to remove the stock sensor completly and just use the narrowband output if its going to kill my gas mileage or if the bosch sensor is only gonna last a couple thousand miles.

Are you guys intending on getting the 200-300 series or the 400-500 series? Does anyone have anything to say on the datalogging portion of the 400 or 500?

Thanks, Sean.