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Originally Posted by jmabasa
Can the knock sensor get damaged in any way? What happens when the knock sensor is damaged?
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Yes it can wear out along with all of the other sensors. The knock sensor feels physical movement in the engine. It has an allowable amount of normal movement that won't affect it since the engine normally vibrates. If a cylinder knocks, the engine jumps and the knock sensor feels it. That's when it starts to compensate and keep the knock from happening.
If the sensor wears out or gets damaged and stops working, it will not adjust for knocking. The engine will be allowed to knock. If the damaged sensor takes in bad readings, it can tell the computer to change the mix and timing to a point where the engine runs rough or not at all.
The problem is almost any sensor can do the same adjustments. The sensors are constantly adjusting, several time per second. Every reading they take is instantly compared to other sensor readings and translated into adjustment. It's pretty amazing to see it work, but it also doesn't take much to mess everything up.
FYI: If you want to avoid future headaches, replace your O2 sensors at 100K miles if they make it that long. That's the expected life of the latest type of O2 sensor.
Here are some good articles on sensor diagnosis http://www.autotap.com/obdii_library.asp