company news about Can I drive with a bad particulate matter sensor?

It is not recommended to drive a vehicle with a damaged particulate matter sensor for a long time. The impact needs to be evaluated according to the specific situation:

Short-term emergency driving is feasible‌
If only the particulate matter sensor is damaged and there are no other engine faults (such as power loss, abnormal shaking), the vehicle can usually still be started and driven for a short distance. However, the emission monitoring system fails at this time and cannot accurately detect the exhaust particulate matter level.

Long-term driving risks are significant‌

Three-way catalytic converter blockage risk‌: After the sensor fails, the engine control unit (ECU) cannot optimize the combustion parameters, resulting in the accumulation of incompletely burned carbon particles, which may block the expensive three-way catalytic converter.
Fuel efficiency reduction‌: The ECU may enter a conservative operating mode and increase the injection volume to compensate for the missing data, resulting in increased fuel consumption.
Cascading failure hazards‌: Increased carbon deposits may cause derivative problems such as engine knock, oxygen sensor poisoning or particulate filter (GPF) blockage.

Regulations and safety restrictions‌
In areas where strict emission testing is implemented (such as annual inspections requiring no fault codes in the OBD system), sensor failure will cause the vehicle to fail compliance inspections. Some models may also trigger "limp home mode" to limit power output.

Recommended operations:

If the engine fault light is on on the dashboard but the vehicle is running normally, it is recommended to repair it as soon as possible (within a week);
If accompanied by power loss, abnormal noise or black smoke from the exhaust, stop driving immediately and tow it to a repair point.

Reference table for fault handling priorities

Symptom Driving distance Risk level
Only the fault light is on, no other abnormalities ≤ 100 kilometers Moderate
Increased fuel consumption + reduced power ≤ 30 kilometers High risk
Exhaust abnormal noise/black smoke Prohibited from driving Emergency

The essence of sensor damage is that the vehicle loses the closed-loop monitoring capability of exhaust particulate matter, and the maintenance plan needs to be comprehensively judged in combination with the limitations of MEMS sensing technology (such as small particle mass measurement deviation).