To understand the signal fluctuation of a wide-range oxygen sensor installed at the exhaust confluence point, when a misfiring is triggered in a cylinder, the steady state and the transient response characteristics of the sensor to the flow of the misfired gas were investigated quantitatively. It was recognized that the steady state output voltage of the sensor increased higher when it contacted the misfired gas even though the fueling condition was the same as the normal combustion case and this characteristic enabled the application of the wide-range oxygen sensor for the misfire detection. The transient response was compared at different engine speeds and it was found that the response speed increased with the engine speed. The signal fluctuation was also estimated quantitatively, using these steady state and transient response of the sensor, and the estimated signal showed satisfactory correlation with the measurements.