MAF cleaner
Newbie
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 99
Likes: 0
From: Austin, TX, USA
Resetting the battery won't hurt anything. Well except your radio presets, lol.
Anyways I wanted to bump this thread because I had a good MAF-cleaning experience this weekend. I had my car tuned about 1500 miles ago, and it ran really fast after the tune. However, recently it had started running a little slower than usual, especially under part-throttle, and I wondered what was up. What occurred to me is that very shortly before the tune, I had installed a K&N panel filter (which is an oiled filter, and I had read recently that oiled filters can foul the MAF sensor if over-oiled, AND that K&N filters are notoriously over-oiled from the factory). So it seemed quite possible that some oil from the filter had gunked the sensor after the tune, causing it to read less air than it should. That means more air is making it into the engine than the ECU "thinks", meaning I am running lean. The tuner had cranked it up right below the knock threshold, so running lean probably meant I was setting off the sensor.
So I cleaned the guy with CRC Brake Cleaner (which I had around), reset the ECU, and whamo, my power is back just like that. I am not 100% certain resetting the ECU was necessary, but I am not sure how much the ECU "remembers" in terms of knock readings. So I plan to go with the advice of the guy that cleans the MAF at every oil change, and I will also be very conservative when re-oiling my panel filter.
Oh, BTW there was no visibly soot or anything on the MAF wire, but K&N filter oil is translucent, so I don't imagine I'd have been able to see oil deposits with the naked eye necessarily.
Anyways I wanted to bump this thread because I had a good MAF-cleaning experience this weekend. I had my car tuned about 1500 miles ago, and it ran really fast after the tune. However, recently it had started running a little slower than usual, especially under part-throttle, and I wondered what was up. What occurred to me is that very shortly before the tune, I had installed a K&N panel filter (which is an oiled filter, and I had read recently that oiled filters can foul the MAF sensor if over-oiled, AND that K&N filters are notoriously over-oiled from the factory). So it seemed quite possible that some oil from the filter had gunked the sensor after the tune, causing it to read less air than it should. That means more air is making it into the engine than the ECU "thinks", meaning I am running lean. The tuner had cranked it up right below the knock threshold, so running lean probably meant I was setting off the sensor.
So I cleaned the guy with CRC Brake Cleaner (which I had around), reset the ECU, and whamo, my power is back just like that. I am not 100% certain resetting the ECU was necessary, but I am not sure how much the ECU "remembers" in terms of knock readings. So I plan to go with the advice of the guy that cleans the MAF at every oil change, and I will also be very conservative when re-oiling my panel filter.
Oh, BTW there was no visibly soot or anything on the MAF wire, but K&N filter oil is translucent, so I don't imagine I'd have been able to see oil deposits with the naked eye necessarily.
bumpin a 3 year old thread. The crc maf cleaner is best to use, but you should be ok with that. some electronic cleaners leave a residue behind so just make sure whichever you go with doesnt do that.
maybe straight rubbing alchohol would be good too, since its breaks down oil/dirt yet leaves no residue.
what i like to do when i clean maf is to put paper tower under it as i spray it down. this way i can gauge how dirty it was
what i like to do when i clean maf is to put paper tower under it as i spray it down. this way i can gauge how dirty it was
