Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting sure enough, it was the MAF (was: MAF voltages)

I unscrewed the top of the MAF and pulled out the core... and sure enough, the two wires were covered with fuzy black deposits on the upstream side. I just cleaned them a few months ago! And furthermore, at that time, they didn't have any such coat of dirt on them even before the cleaning. Either something got some sticky gunk in there, or the CTA cone filter is letting through too much dirt. Or both. The latter is almost certainly true, judging by the fine film of dust on the silicone gasket that attaches to the throttle body.

Anyway, it appears to be running fine now. My previous MAF cleaning didn't produce such good results, so maybe one of the other things I did also fixed something. Or maybe I cleaned it better this time. I used solvent, gently brushed the deposits off, then put penetrating oil on it. I hoped that might get under any remaining gunk. Then I used solvent again to get the oil out.

Anyway, thanks to those who steered me back to the MAF after I thought I had eliminated it from the list of suspects.

Now I'm free to install my e-RAM, if I find any free time.