Quote:
Originally Posted by monacobluen54
Would the heater elements failing cause completely random misfires, or could that be something vacuum related
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It could cause all kinds of weird issues because 02 sensors only work in a certain temperature range, that is why they have heaters built in to get them up to temp faster than exhaust alone can.
When you start a cold car it runs in "open loop" until the sensors are hot enough to read properly then the car goes into "closed loop" where the O2 sensor is then used to help adjust fuel trims and determine how rich or lean the engine is running.
If the sensors are never getting up to temp properly they could be misreading the mixtures and causing the engine to add too little or too much fuel and then causing the drive-ability issue you have.