Just did a bunch of much needed work on my car yesterday. I did a few things at the same time so its hard to say exactly what did what. But I can say that the end result is amazing. My car had been running like absolute **** for a while. Idle was messed up, rpms dropped way to low, throttle response was horrible, MAF was almost certainly shot (didnt get a chance to pull code, just wanted to install updated MAF while ripping intake apart).

Anyway, the MAF and the cleaning made my car run fine again. Cant say much for the restrictor except that the black paint was all chipped up and i was happy to have it out of there. One thing it did notice is my idle sits a little higher (~850rpms). Not sure if this is from the restrictor but i recall sombody reporting the same thing after pulling the restrictor. I did the sea foam last. Note to self: use sea foam in very well ventilated area! Holy **** that was a lot of smoke. I had to tell my girl to go inside while i pulled the car out of the driveway and down the block to keep from suffocating. lol. Throttle response is improved after the sea foam. I put 1/3 of the bottle into the vaccum line connecting to the brake master cylinder and the rest in the tank. At any rate, its like driving a new car.

 

good to hear, sounds like an eventful day. i was not happy about the paint chipping off of my plate either. i am planning on using seafoam before my next oil change and it should be helpful in finding a small exhaust leak i have.

 

How do you know your MAF sensor was shot? Just out of curiosity.

 

if its completely shot, it will not rev over 2.5k rpms. the maf is essential for the ecu calculating and mainting proper a/f ratios. some people have replaced their maf and felt better acceleration even thought it was not completely dead. i replaced my maf with the updated part and just kept the old for a spare just in case.

 

Yeah, what sloppy said. Mine wasnt totally shot, but Im pretty sure it was going south. No amount of buildup in the TB/IM could make my car run as bad as it was. I cant even explain how much better it is.

BTW another thing i noticed but forgot to mention is my car is sooooo much quieter and smooth now. My engine seems to make a lot less noise.

 

it is also not a bad idea to wipe the screen down thats in front of the maf sensor. even with a clean air filter, i have noticed it can buildup a bunch of crap in a relatively short amount of time.