please help! o2 problem

so my buddy cut my insulated o2 sensor wire to hook up my air/fuel gauge and im constantly reading lean and thats it just lean does the insulated wire do anything is there a proper way to rewire it? how can i fix it back to how it was or could there be a reason why my air fuel gauge just stopped working normally to reading lean could something else cause that? please help me with this it would be much appreciated. oh and what does the insulated wire do exactly?

Unwire what he did, go cut a plug from the junk yard and solder it back together. Air/fuel gauges are pointless unless you have boost.

what do i do about the double insulated wire does it do anything?

Since that wire is supposed to lead to the exhaust manifold…I’m going to assume insulated means the same as “heat resistant” since excessive high heat is bad for electrical current.

I could be wrong though…anyone else?

okay so its nothing special lol well could my o2 sencor go bad in like one day and it just start reading lean? lol

They do go bad eventually…your car could really just be running lean. Pull out the o2 sensor…if its light grey all over the part that goes inside the manifold…your engine is in fact running lean and everything is working just like it should (besides the fact its lean).

Is the air/fuel gauge spliced into the o2 wire? Or is the o2 completely disconnected? I have never installed one those gauges are installed is why I ask…

i will do that tomorrow and it is spliced into the o2 wire

could my o2 sencor just be bad?

could be. you can use the a/f gauge to test if it’s good, but not to confirm that it’s bad, as the gauge itself may be faulty.
but to test if the sensor is good, with the engine at operating temp, spray a SMALL amount of quick start in the air cleaner boot. if the gauge reads rich briefly, the sensor is likely good. if it stays lean, either the sensor or gauge is faulty

okay cool thanks for the tip ill try it when it warms up some lol