So here is the story cause I feel you might need a little background.

I call the Mitsubishi dealership cause my gas mileage has dropped of about 5-7 mpg. I talk with the service man. He asks me if I have a KN filter on my vehicle. I tell him yes, (it is really an RMR intake but same principle). He asks me if I keep it oiled regularly. I tell him yes. He says that I should try buying this stuff called Mass Air flow sensor cleaner. So I buy the stuff read the directions.

Unplug the battery, unplug the ECU which is on top of the MAF. Unscrew the clamp that connects the MAF to the intake hose leading to the engine. I located the MAF which appeared to simply be a resistor. I sprayed a little bit of the cleaner on it. Let it air dried as specified. I then reconnect everything making sure everything is tightly on there. Reconnect the ecu, then the battery fire it up and I get nothing. Try again the car starts up and sounds terrible. The whole engine rocks, the car idles really low, the intake also doesn't feel like it is sucking in any air. In the end, I cannot get the thing up and running. So a buddy tows me to Autozone to have the CEL code read.
The manager fiddles around with the car for a while. He unplugs the plug that connects the battery to the ECU which I thought controls the MAF. The car runs fine now. My question is what happened? Did I mess up my MAF? Is the ECU damaged? I don't know which part needs to be replaced. I am a little upset with the serviceman who told me to do this. In theory it should have worked but...

So my question is:
Is the MAF sensor messed up or is the ECU damaged? When the ECU is unpluggd the car acts fine the CEL light just stays on.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

I have extra maf if you need it

 

It doesn't sound like any of the two were damaged.

 

I've used that MAF cleaner stuff before to remove filter oil residue. Maybe the cleaner hadn't dried before you tried starting it? It happend to me once. After the cleaner evaporated off the MAF, the car ran fine.

 

I used the cleaner last Saturday. It has been more than 48 hours surely it is dry by now. When the MAF is unplugged the car runs fine. My guess is that the MAF is busted. Do I have to have the entire thing replaced or do you think a dealership could fix it? Either way it is going to cost a lot of money probably.

 

my car did the same thing after i had installed a new intake.

unplug everything and clean out all connections. Then hook everything back up and make sure all connections are secure.
Then reset your ECU.

i did that and it worked again. It turned out the MAF connection was loose.

 

Dealership said they would take a look at it for free. We will see after that.... *crosses fingers* car is still under warranty. Hopefully we can compromise.

 

I have 2002 lancer 2.0 it started running poorly and i found it was a bad maf no codes but readings were low so i replaced on off a 2006 and it runs like a champ when i disconnected it i got multiple dtc codes so the way system is designed it has multiple inter connection to ecm not only did it fix bogging out but idle and balance.

 

Hey still got that maf I'm stranded in Umpqua national forest I need one