Haha, I like your image!
I have a small xhaust leak at the header which is throwin the codes, however the code will only come on after a while of driving i.e 2-3 weeks. Reason I asked my previous question is I want to know if the car is running lean (unmetered air) during the 2-3 weeks before the cel comes on or like you said, is it correcting the lean condition in the meantime but when the light comes on, it is an overly rich/extreme condition therefore setting off the code
I also get 1132 which is also related
2-3 weeks is a very long time. Too long to draw a useful conclusion from.
Again, I think you are trying to gleem too much information from the DTC code. IMO, the root problem is for some reason, the PCM is not getting a good signal from the O2 sensor. Either because of a wiring problem or slow response from the sensor.
The PCM is constantly monitoring the O2 sensors to see that the adjusments are working. The O2 feedback is so slow (or interrupted), that the adaptive fuel trim strategy can not converge. This is what throws the DTC.
The challenge is to find out why.
What you are failing to realize is the code is trying to indicate a break down in the adaptive fuel trim strategy. If this were just an exhaust leak problem, the the O2 sensors would read lean and that would be the end of it.
Back to the driving analogy. When the wheel is turned in a direction, you expect the car to go in that direction.
But that's NOT what is happening. Imaging turning the wheel to the right and instead, the car turns LEFT!
Are you having trouble understand what the DTC is saying or are you having problems understanding why a corroded electrical connection could cause this? Or how a contaminated O2 sensor can cause this? Or how an exhaust leak could make a marginal O2 sensor problem WORSE?
Let me give you another analogy. Image that you are driving down the road and it's raining. The windshield wippers are working. But if you break the process down, the windshields is not clean all of the time. It is clean for a period of time until the next swipe of the wipers. But it's OK because the the views are arriving at a frequent enough rate.
Now image it begins to rain harder and the windshield wippers slow down. Now the periods of time that the road can not be seen will be longer. The driver is getting small snap shots in time and has to make corrections between snap shots.
As the time between snap shots gets longer, at some point effective control is no longer possible. There is simply too much happening between snap shots.
You did not answer my question about long tubes. Are there any other "issues" with your ride? Any mods?