Nissan knock sensors -- EPA requirement, or?

[NWtrnr]

From the limited industry material I've read, it appears that the knock sensor design that Nissan follows is one where the sensor is not used for emissions control, rather its main purpose is protection. Please see: http://www.gatewaycleanair.com...r.htm

My question is this, does anyone know whether Nissan's knock sensor, since it is not used for emissions control, is still a required EPA component? If it isn't, any suggestions on where I could locate some documentation to that effect?

I've gone round and around trying to find someone at Nissan who might be able to answer this question, but to no avail. Corporate sends me to dealer, who sends me back to corporate, etc.

I'm having a row with my extended warranty company who excludes any component "required or caused" by the EPA (Clean Air Act). I'm hoping that because the Nissan knock sensor isn't for emissions per se, that it isn't actually "required or caused" by the EPA.

Thanks for any input or suggestions anyone may have.
Modified by NWtrnr at 4:08 PM 9/1/2006

[Defiant]

It's kind of a round-about circle. The ECU is set up to give the best performance within the parameters of legal emissions, and part of how it gets the performance near the edge of detonation is through monitoring of the real-world reaction of the metered mixture inside the combustion chamber, searching for ping. When it hears enough, it takes measures through spark adjustment to reduce or eliminate it. However, it's a sensor the ECU tests, and when it doesn't get the correct values from it, the ECU will throw a CEL-- which you can't pass emissions testing without it being cleared. It's a chicken-and-egg situation, with both coming first. Or, second. Insofar as it's a necessary part of the smog control scheme, I'm afraid the warranty weasels will get out of this one. I suppose your mileage is high enough to not get in under that distance requirement (used to be 50K miles, I'm not sure about later cars).

[Q45tech]

The clean air act covers lots of things besides emissions from tail pipe so essentially the warranty company [service insurance contract] is excluding everything in engine bay, all sensors and ecu and gas tank and everything in between. including evaporative emissions plus O2 and cats.

Smart lawyers you should have read before signing.

Which CLEAN AIR ACT.........there were several.

OBD2 is a requirement of the act and every component must be monitored by OBD2.

[texasoil]

The knock sensors are an integral part of the ignition timing control system. Failure of them sets the ECU to a RETARDED ignition timing-which increases fuel consumption significantly. They are just as important as a timing chain or fuel injector.