MY 1993 SE has been wonderful for so long I haven't been around here lately...but I'm back with a weird problem. My car seems to be running beautifully, except every once in a while (maybe once or twice every day out of an hour of driving) it will start bucking around like crazy on slow low rpm acelleration in first or second, and if I don't push in the clutch and wait a couple seconds then try again it'll stall. And sometimes when idling for a long time at a stop light, it will shake like crazy for a second and stall. It will not start again for maybe 45 seconds or so, then it will run fine again another 20 minutes or whatever until it happens again. It's MADDENING. I took it to a mechanic who I kin of trust, and he said it's the mass airflow sensor...but would that really cause such sporadic problems? Any other ideas to look into? It seems to happen more often under a load (like with the A/C and stereo on) so I was thinking maybe alternator or battery issues, but both are fairly new and seem to be in great shape.

If it probably is the MAF sensor, where would be a good place to buy a replacement MAF sensor? Any good places online? The dealer here always tries to rip me off like crazy for parts and I'm sure that's something super easy to replace myself. Thanks!

 

Your mechanic could be right, but there could be other causes too. Like injectors, EGR, coil packs, etc. That problem is NOT battery or alternator.

 

Have you checked your computer for any codes?

 

MAF problems can definitely start out as on-and-off, but I'd be testing some other things too, espeically before buying an expensive MAF. Does a bad MAF really cause a no start condition tho (not a rhetorical question, I'm not sure)? mine went very very bad and gradually got worse for a long time, but it NEVER caused a no-start condition. I mean I can start my car even with my MAF unplugged, it just wont stay alive long

 

Fuel pump?