After only putting about 100 miles on my car, I had been getting a SES light on and some of the codes are for bank 1 sensor 1, and car smells very rich so I decided to swap it out today, but ran into a problem. The old one was barely hand tight. The threads on it are stripped. Tried to install the new one and it will not go in. I doubt a tap would even fix the threads. I picked up a weld on bung today, planned on plugging the old bung and welding it shut, then installing the new one beside it, but then had another idea....

Can I just clean up the stripped bung and weld the new one right to it? This would space the O2 sensor about 1/2" out of the collector. If I do this will it read wrong? Or will it work fine??? Kinda seems like the added space would work sorta like a spark plug non-fouler. LOL

As always, ALL help and advice is GREATLY APPRECIATED. (Even the smart a$$ and bad advice....at least they took time to reply.) Seriously....you guys are awesome.

 

Anyone??

 

I am pretty sure you can use a thread straightener for a spark plug to try and fix it.

You can also use a spark plug non fouler and weld in the original hole as long as its not too long, you may want to cut it off.

You can cap that hole and weld in a new bung, it will be fine.

 

I tried the spark plug thread chaser on one before and it didn't work for me. The metal the bung was made out of was harder than the metal the chaser was made of, and all it did was tear up the chaser. This was a cheap OEM brand tool from Auto Zone too though.