I have no idea what happened to my car. Last night I was just driving to a local theater, wasnt doing anything stupid and I didn't hit any bumps, and suddenly my car started to hesitate slightly as I accelerated. I got to a light and might idle started going crazy! It bogged down to around 2~300 rmps and when I started to go I was jerking all over and a ton of white smoke started pouring out of my exhaust! My car got REALLY loud and sounded like a busted lawn mower. I pulled over, luckily my friend was behind me, and when we checked the engine bay it sounded like something was arching by my fuel rail. Since I had AAA i took a chance to try and restart the car. When it started I had to feed it gas to keep it going otherwise it would just stall out.
I managed to get it home and I checked my code and it gave me a 0102, Mas Air Flow Sensor. I checked the plug and wires to my mafs and they were all intact and in the plug. Could a mafs just go bad like that? I'm really confused and frustrated since it just hit me out of the blue. Any ideas?

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I CAN go past 2400rpms

 

Make sure everything is plugged in. Usually a dying MAf would mean you can't rev past 2500rpm's, and the engine would run jerky. it sounds like yours was disconnected.

 

No doubt it is definately your Mass Air Flow. I knew that before I finished reading the post.. yes they can go bad suddenly. And yes it is a common seller for our gen Max. Sometimes, if you can keep the car running long enough to do so, you can tap the MAF and notice that the engine reacts to it. After you find the price from the dealer, you may check out used ones here or at a salvage yard.. just be sure to get an exact match!
DJ

 

MAF sensor. Same thing happened to me. Even if it's connected, disconnect it and then re-connect it.

 

I had same problem not too long ago.. I just played with the wires a bit, and all was good.

 

Is there a way to clean mafs? If its messed up it can't hurt t try to clean it and see if it helps. I'm a typical college student on a tight budget. I want to make sure it needs to be replace before i shell out the cash for it.

I tried starting it again this morning and it started did without a problem. The idle was still unstable and it sounded like a chopper. I tried banging on it a couple time but nothing happened.

 

Its not common for the whole generation. On 4th gens its mostly the 99s that have problems with MAFs (and coils), just like 5th gens.

99NJMax, check the MAF before you go replacing it, might be a short somewhere along the harness for it. The procedure should be on the FSM

 

But what about the white smoke and the noise?
This sounds more like a blown head gasket to me.
Check the fluid levels. Check the engine oil for contamination with coolant.

 

I know its running very rich and not burning off coolant. It doesn't smell sweet at all and and I've got a nice thick layer of black soot all over my bumper.

 

This is probably not the solution, but make sure all the hoses on your intake are plugged in. My car was doing the same thing last night, it just wouldnt idle/stay on. I popped the hood and noticed that one of the intake hoses was disconnected. Connected it back, and everything's perfect. I'm sure you already tried to check, but these are similar symptoms.

 

ok so i just got a new mafs from a salvage yard with a matching part number but still nothing works. I've looked over the wires by the harness and i dont see any breaks or anything. Another thing is that when i shut the car off it seems to accerate on its own befor shutting off for about 5 seconds. I really dont want to have to go to a dealer for this. I checked with a friend of mine that works there and it'll cost me $500 with his employee discount just for the mafs and I dont have that kind of money right now.
I;ve tried tapping the mafs and pushing the wires further in but still nothing happens. I tried checking the voltage like the haynes manual says and i was getting a reading of 9.6v! It shot up to 11v when i started the motor. I'm really clueless at this point and extremely frustrated. I really need this car to be working soon.

 

UPDATE:
ok now i'm really confused. I just took out my intake and reinstalled it to make sure everything was hooked up and tried it WITHOUT the mafs. It started up normal with a smooth idle and wouldnt let me rev past 2500 of course. I reconnected to mafs and my problem started up all over again.

 

The Salvage yard MAFS might be bad as well. I've heard of that happening a couple of times on the SR20 Forums. They are pretty delicate. Get ahold of a voltmeter and check the voltage if you can. Also make sure your battery and Alty are working properly. They can cause some bad things to happen sometimes. Since you can run the car without the maf plugged in though, that's probably a long shot.

 

Take your choice. Not a horrid price...

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,ca...IengineID,2884

Or try junkyard

 

ok so i got a band new mafs from a dealer and i'm still not getting anywhere. Same as before, it just chugs like a motorcycle. I still dont know why it revs after i shut the engine off though. The other weired thing is that when it revs its sounds like its back to normal. This is really driving me nuts. I'm going to go over all the wires again today. Any other ideas that I should try? Its been over a month now and I really miss my baby.

 

if you drive your car to me, we can solve this problem.

 

Do you have a grounding kit? Same problems happend to me when I over did mine.

 

where are you located tavarish?

 

Im in Pequannock down 23. Shoot me a PM if you want me to come over and look at it

-matt

 

I actually have an old harness from a previous wiring problem so i took the mafs harness off of that one and tried it out. no luck, it actually acts like my mafs isnt plugged in. Its got to be the mafs because its the only thing thats affecting the car. If i was misfiring or had some other problem then it should still misfire when i unplug the mafs right?

edit: the old harness is actually messed up so thats why it didnt work. a wire was broken in the insulation too close to the harness to repair.

 

UPDATE: Turns out the harness was bad. Same problem as the older harness, there was a break in the wire. I managed to get some wire and replace the broken one from the harness and she ran fine, or so i thought. I drove it to work the next morning and everything was fine til i tried to leave. I try to turn her on and she just dies. A nice little click came from the engine bay. I thought my red top could be dead, but i just drove it around 20 miles the night before to charge it. I jumped it and i thought everything was ok till i tried to turn the ac on and the car just died on me right before i got onto the highway. We jumped it again and then i tried to turn on my lights, same thing. I had no choice but to drive home. While i was driving my OD light started flashing randomly along with my seatbelt light and my air bag light. I managed to get it back to my house. I check the battery and its still reading 12v on or after it dies. I also tried to pull codes and i got a 1403? I cant find that anywhere in the faqs or the haynes manual. I checked my wiring job and everything looked good and wrapped. Whats killing my car? When i turn the power on everything is very dim and gradually get brighter till its as bright as its supposed to be. ugh! its just one thing after another.

 

bump ttt...