Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Zetec Maintenance How to clean your MAF

I've been meaning to write this for a while. I've been worried be other member's techniques. Here ya go...

It only costs a few dollars in parts. You need a couple of SOFT pipe cleaners and either a can of NO RESIDUE Electrical Contact Cleaner or a bottle of 99% Isopropyl Alcohol. Don't buy anything less than 99% Isopropyl! Anything less than 99% contains rubbing oils and will screw up the MAF's readings.

The pipe cleaners should be the super soft kind like kids use for arts and crafts. like these:



You then douse the pipe cleaner in cleaning fluid. Very carefully brush the pipe cleaner against the MAF elements. Don't use any force! The MAF wires are extremely delicate and are easy to break.

Like so:


Another view:


Once you're finished blow on it real hard to get rid of any fibers left behind by the pipe cleaners. You should also reset your PCM so that it learns the clean MAF's characteristics.

BTW, I've been an Electronics Technician for over 10 years, so I know what I'm talking about.

HTH,
Ben

Sweet! Nice work man, good pics!

Good work. Pictures always help. Does the Duratec have the same MAF? Maybe Admins can stickie this to the "How to".

I'm not sure how the Duratec MAF is constructed. I've never seen one. I'm guessing it's similar though.

BP

Shooooot. I just spray some electrical cleaner in there. No need for pipe cleaners or q-tips and whatnot.

Using just the NO RESIDUE contact cleaner will do a pretty good job. In order to get it really clean, I would reccomend using the soft pipe cleaners.

Using Q-tips will break things.

BP

I've got a 97 Merc with the Zetec, and the MAF is all aluminum, but it does look similar to that. Are the procedures the same?

Yes, almost exactly the same. You just won't have the IAT sensor to clean. (The little part on the left hand side of the picture.)

HTH,
BP

A car that has been at least decently maintained should never need anything more than just the spray cleaner.

But if you make a habit of driving dusty roads daily, running without an airfiler, running an airfilter with a hole, or you get alot of gunk recirculating back to the intake, then the pipe cleaner method is a good way to clean it up once then maintain it with the spray cleaner.

Whenever I clean my filter I clean my MAF.