RomRaider

I just went through my 3rd LSU 4.9, and I am starting to hate bosch sensors

It seems that this one died due to condensation (yes, I have it installed as per manufacturer's recommendations) because it gave up when I was dialing in my cold starts with the car warming up and cooling down during close to freezing outside weather, so I am sure there was plenty of condensation in the exhaust compared to the summer season

I tested my wideband controller, and it uses quite primitive strategy where a timer counts once it senses operating motor voltage. It seems that the timeout is too small, and going through bosch documentation they specify NOT to start heating up the sensor before all condensation is gone. This means running the car for a longer period of time, which I don't mind at all since I don't drive it until oil warms up, so for the sake of sensor life span I can wait a little longer. I am running Autronic so I can program it to give an output which will power up the wideband relay, or just control the wideband's main ground.

I am sure the stock ECU has a sophisticated procedure for sensor heater, and I am curious to find out what it is? Does it simple times out, or uses other info like IAT/AAT/coolant or oil temps or RPM? Easiest way would be to monitor EGT and go from there, but not all cars came equipped with it from the factory, and I don't have that input either.

What is the best wideband heater strategy for longer sensor life span?

Just delay sensor heating for some period after engine startup.
Denso uses to postpone sensor heater turn on for up to a minute ( 8 minutes for old JDM cars ).
You may set a coolant dependent delay.

Hey !
I also got a LSU4.9 running for about 2 years, daily driven, with hot conditions to snow etc etc... Never had any problem. It's connected directly to a AEM UEGO.

Is yours standalone, or connected to the ECU ?

I have burned through three O2 sensors as well (1x LSU 4.2 and 2 x LSU 4.9) with Innovate LC-2. At least that's what I thought.
First two sensors were located where the second OEM O2 sensor is. I thought that it was because of the location and moved it to downpipe just after turbo. One LSU 4.9 still started giving me error code in this new location.
What helped was that I rewired + and + from the battery with a switch. Previously I had it wired up to the stock clock harness in the dash. How it finally works now, is that I switch it on just AFTER I have started the car. Even my old "broken" LSU 4.2 has woken up and is working now.... I don't know how. Probably the wiring and good source of ground is the main thing.

yes - innovate products are picky on their grounding.

I like to ground them to chassis. Always works.

My LSU 4.9 is on the Downpipe, and connected to the +vbat.

what controller are you using ?