Engine: D52447: Engine Service Required - MAF Cleaning

[BestGear]

Cleaning before replacing is always a good idea...

You are better to remove the maf sensor from the air pipe itself - two torx (may be 5 point on some cars) so you can remove the actual maf sensor and get right into it.

You will be left with the maf in your hand - which looks like the maf on the front of the first maf cleaner can picture.

As has been said many times before.... dont go in ther too hard as the maf wire is very delicate.

David

[Shadeyman]

Originally Posted by BestGear

As has been said many times before.... dont go in ther too hard as the maf wire is very delicate.

David

That's the reason I left it in its housing, it is a very fragile(and expensive) component so leaving it in place protected it from anything stupid I may have done. The cleaning spray has to be held at a distance from the actual sensor and works perfectly well through the mesh.

[Coconut]

Excellent information, Photographs and instructions -
Many thanks for this very useful post

[Funky Diver]

So, I set about doing this with my tin of Halfords Electric Cleaner spray.

Problem, I couldn't get the nozzle in through the protection mesh to clean the wire.

Solution. Took the MAF sensor out of the housing. Had to use pliers, a the screws are ribe-security-bugger like.

So here's the sensor unit.



This was after the initial clean.

I basically cleaned anything metallic looking, figuring they would in some way be affecting the sensor if covered in crud, which it all was.

Particularly this thermistor / diode (blue arra) and the metallic plate (red arra) under the rather obvious flow channel.



I also noticed that actually... Where the wire inside the action port lives... There's 3!

This is after the second clean...



Popped it all back together, and voila... Car really is more responsive! Cheers shadeyman!

[BestGear]

Well done Funky...

With the maf out of the housing I think you can now see why I suggested it.

This maf is like many others that have various chambers and air passages that unless you take the maf sensor out, you dont really have much chance of cleaning it properly.

As a total aside... that maf looks suspiciously like one porsche use (bosch part).


David

[Funky Diver]

It is a Bosch unit...

[Shadeyman]

Originally Posted by BestGear

As a total aside... that maf looks suspiciously like one porsche use (bosch part).


David

Bosch MAF Sensors use the same design(because it works extremely well) so tend to look alike. Most measure air temp and flow but some(Film) measure only flow.

A common problem with taking the sensor out of its housing for cleaning is holding the spray to close and basically freezing it. If you know what your doing then remove the sensor from its housing, the usual short bursts allowing the temperature of the sensor to rise a few degree's after each burst is fine. But, a thin layer a frost can easily form on the sensor if your not careful making the platinum wires very fragile. The onboard electronics can also be effected by low temperatures, always better to be safe than sorry, not too close and short bursts.

[Shadeyman]

I've just been told its best to reset the engine ECU by disconnecting the battery for an hour(or more) after cleaning the MAF to allow the car to adjust to the new signal from the cleaned MAF quicker. I know some cars like Fiat respond to this, do Volvo?