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Cleaning your MAF

Joined
May 2, 2007
Messages
132
Location
Austin, TX
So I was searching for a MAF adapter on Ebay and I found some guy talking about how he'll sell you the "secret" to fixing your MAF sensor so that you'll never have to buy one again...blah blah blah... but hey, it's $2.99. :shrug:

So I thought I'd take a hit for the team, buy this $3 "secret" and share it with the rest of you guys.

Turns out to just telling you about CLEANING it.

The website that he linked me to after I paid my $3 beats the p-ss out of you with Popups... so I'll just copy and paste.

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Their are TWO WAYS to fix the sensor. The first one is the fastest way but used for emergenencies only, the second one is for long term....so please read EVERYTHING
The MAF sensor is very crucial to any car. Let me first tell you what it does and how it works. The MAF sensor
stands for (Mass Air Flow) which pretty much senses how much air is going into the engine and then tells the
computer this information. The computer need to know how much air is going in because it then controls the fuel
injectors which spray more or less gasoline into the engine. So when more air goes into the engine, more gas is
sprayed into the engine. However when you have a faulty MAF sensor, you have a problem. When you have a
bad MAF sensor, pretty much it doesn’t know how much air is going in, it actually thinks there is less air going in
so then the computer get this information and doesn’t spray enough gas into the engine (and your car runs
lean), so then you have misfires, loss of torque, and your engine will rattle, and car will jerk when accelerating, and if your turbo charged, your turbo won't work...





Emergency Procedure:



To make the sensor think there is more air going in; we have TWO options: ONE is to do a simple modification to the MAF sensor, TWO is just to clean it properly which is what you should do.
First off, take off the sensor from the air intake box. The whole circular cylinder pipe part with the sensor. Not just
the sensor.
Now all you need is tape, use masking tape preferably, any other tape will work but it wont stick to the grill and
might get sucked into the intake manifold and that’s bad.
Ok if you look inside the cylinder circular part you will notice a black rectangle, that’s the sensor, but we won’t be
touching it for the modification. Ok now take some tape and cover up the top and bottom part of the circular gritted area, leaving the
middle part open. What this will do is, when the engine is running, their will be more air hitting the sensor itself,
which is in the middle of the circular cylinder, instead of having the air be dispersed around it. Pretty much, we
just concentrated the air onto the sensor itself, and by this the sensor now knows there is more air hitting it. Now
the computer will send more fuel into the engine, and the engine should run fine. A simple fix that will last for a
while.
So here is what happened over time. The sensor got old and wasn’t as sensitive to the air flow. Kind of when you
have nerve damage in a certain part of the body, some times for you to feel it you have to apply more pressure
for your brain to receive it. Same thing here, we need to apply more air pressure onto the sensor itself for the
computer to receive that information


http://detailingshop.4t.com/cgi-bin/i/images/465728_295_full.jpg




[FONT=&quot]now this example is over exagerating the mod....you need to leave more space between the two tapes in the middle. all the problem is, Over time the sensor gets dirty and loses its sensitivity to the air flow molecules.......so either applying more pressure onto the sensor with the MOD or simply cleaning it will work most of the time.[/FONT]




Cleaning Procedure

The MAF Sensor doesnt actually break unless you literally break it with your hands or dinsonnect the circuit from the sensor. Their are times the sensor needs replacement because the vibrations from the engine have distorted the sensor. More than %90 of the time what happens is, the air filter used with your car has particles that attach themselves to the sensor, over time the flow of the air molecules moving through the sensor isnt noticed and the engine concludes their is no air flowing, therefore giving the engine less fuel resulting in weird symptoms. After cleaning the sensor, the particles on the sensor should rinse right off resulting in the sensor feeling the air like it was designed in the first place. MAF sensors should be cleaned every 10,000 miles, many people don't know this. If they dont get cleaned on a regular basis, the sensor whill eventually burn out. And the result will be poor gas milage and many other issues. Just like an engine needs oil change every 3,000 miles, the sensor needs cleaning too. If you end up having to buy a new sensor make sure to clean it every 10,000 miles otherwise your going to have to buy another one over and over, and waste a lot of money. Also check to make sure your air filter is clean, and always buy K & N filters. K & N tends to make filters which dont have particles that get easily disonnected and attached to the sensor. $2.99 is not a lot of money but now you know how the sensor works and how to properly take care of your engine which this sensor controls.











Denatured or Isopropyl Alcohol may be used




Simply flush the sensor in the ziplock bag for a few minutes,,,removing all the dirt off.




Let it air dry or a blow dryer may be used




Now this is a new product that can be used instead of the messy bag flushing,,,one can lasts for a dozen MAF procedures



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If you try this, let us all know how it works out. ENJOY. :cool:
 
Last edited:
My car was throwing a CEL, PO174, system lean, bank 1 or something like that, I used that MAF cleaner that you have a pic of by CRC. Worked like a champ, car runs fine now
 
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