how long does it take you to remove the MAF and such? this product sounds great...ive only had my 02 max for about 3 weeks now...its got 65k on it...it runs great, i love it. but im reading on here about things to expect...i hope my MAF doesnt go bad like alot of peoples have. have you guys gone thru alot of MAF's? i'm just curious. thanks for the great threads!

 

Getting to the MAF is fairly easy whether you have a stock intake or an aftermarket intake. The MAF sensor itself is inside a black plastic tube that is a few inches long. You'll find it between your throttle body and your air filter box. It should have a couple of wires plugged into it on one connector. I can't remember now if the connector is green, grey, or black... but there should only be one plugged into the MAF in any case.

 

I think my maf is going, so I might as well give this a try soon.

 

I'm in pretty much the same boat as you. My '02 Max has 56k miles on it. The thing is, mine seems slower than other 6-speed's I've driven. I'm really starting to wonder if I'm experiencing early MAF death symptoms. I've also noticed the car idles a tiny bit rough every once in a while too.

 

I can't comment on this..because I never tried it. But theres one thing I got to say.........A while back when my car went in for an injector flush (or something like that) the dealer (or in this case maybe they should be called "stealer") recomended a MAF cleaning which I ended up doing.. To make a long story short, they ruined my MAF and the car wouldn't start on the first try..They replaced it under warranty..

So my messege to the first one to try it..HOPE all goes well!

 

This is the link to my posting about some issues I had
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=465072

the electronic cleaner DOES work guys, just like what sloppymax said
I went to look for the CRC MAF cleaner but couldn't find it so i bought the CRC electronic cleaner instead. I sparyed the MAF for about 2-3 mins from all different angles. My car feels like new once again.

 

There's a good possibility that all the MAF cleaner is is rebadged electronic cleaner. Good find and I'm glad it worked. I my try that ish.

 

Ugh, I think my MAF just went. I got a CEL driving home from teh movies last night.

 

Hmmm I think it's time for me do clean my MAF, it's been over 60K miles. Well did anyone tried this, anyone got a write up on how to exactly do it??

 

So you tried spraying your MAF, and it got messed up?? What did you use???

 

No, No, No. That was really just an arbitrary statement. Had nothing to do with the cleaner. I was just driving and my damn CEL light came on.

 

Ohhhhh I thought you were for real alpinestars.
Well so cleaning is pretty simple right??? Let me get is straight.
1. take out your MAF 2. spray the inside walls of MAF a couple times 3. let it dry 4. and put it back on???????

 

Hmmm, I thought you'd need to spray the actual MAF sensor itself, not just the walls. I'm sure the instructions on the can spell it out though.

BTW, last night after reading through this thread, I was curious enough about the condition of my MAF to go and pull it out of the car. All I could really see was a super light coating of dust on the inside walls of the MAF. The sensor itself looked shiny and clean, with just a slight dust buildup on the plastic around the sensor.

The one thing I did notice was the silver screen that is between the MAF and the air filter was quite dirty. It was black so I wiped it off with a micro-fiber towel. I would assume that this dirt would have to be on the MAF sensor too, since it sits right behind the screen.

When I do use the MAF cleaner, I intend to just pull the MAF sensor out of the top of the MAF using the two screws. This way I can get a better look of the sensor itself instead of trying to see it through the screen.

 

just go to any full service auto parts store and they should be able to get it for you from their supplier.dont know if pep boys does that.

 

on a sensor to damage it?

 

Man, this stuff is hard to track down. I went to five different stores to look for this stuff and found nothing. Is there any online store that sell these?

 

Is there is KRAGEN AUTO PARTS in your state? That is where I got mine.

 

Have you tried Carquest?

 

Don't know how legit the site is but I found it here...
http://www.midwayautosupply.com/deta...tion.asp?19596

 

i got mine at kragen too, first place i looked.

 

my experience: possible horsepower gains, not much if any though. i did notice a big change in the shifting of my trans though. been really slow shifting as my trans is getting pretty sloppy, but after i did this i noticed there was a much faster shift than ive noticed for a long time.

 

O'Reilley's ordered it for me overnight, and I picked it up first thing in the morning on the next day.

I took out the two screws that secure the MAF sensor inside its black tube, and I took out the sensor and put it on top of a shop towel. It didn't look very dirty to begin with, and I didn't see ANY of the red oil that other people saw. A little bit of dark colored dust and dirt came off, and that was it.

Nothing bad happened. I guess I didn't notice much good either, but that's probably due to the fact that my MAF sensor wasn't very dirty. I have been using a K&N oiled filter for months, but I don't over-oil my filter, so maybe that's why I didn't end up cleaning a bunch of filter oil off my MAF sensor.

 

Saw this at a local PepBoys yesterday...along with 3 kinds of SeaFoam

 

So ok you don't spray the walls right, you spray the sensor?
Here's the pic of MAF, what do you actually need to spray? So far it's confusing since some say just the inside walls around it, and some the actual sensor!!

BTW Hamzer11 thanks for that store, I think that's a pretty good deal for $7, but shipping is $5+ additional.
SPIRO, how much you ordered your for?

 

i saw it at strauss auto, does it work?
-O

 

Shurik, I got my can for a total of about $6.50.

Look at the area where the wires plug in on your MAF sensor. You should see two screws with torx-bit heads on them (requires a star shaped bit on your screwdriver). Take those two screws out and pull the sensor out of the round black tube. It is stuck in there pretty firmly because of a rubber o-ring, but you won't break it as long as you pull it straight out. You can use a flat screwdriver just to get it started if you need to.

Once you have the MAF sensor out, just be careful with it. Don't drop it in the dirt. Set it on top of a clean shop towel and spray all parts of it with the cleaner.

 

Oh, by the way...

During my initial test drive after cleaning my MAF sensor, I didn't notice a dramatic improvement, but I never floored it. My Maxima used to have an annoying problem where it would have a hard time shifting at WOT. It would go up to redline and then it would try to shift to the next gear, but it almost sounded like it would shift twice (shift, cough, shift). Now it shifts smoothly. I don't know why cleaning the MAF improves shifting, but it did for me.

 

Spiro, greatly appreciated for the info bro. Do you know if cleanging the inside walls where the sensor is importaing as well? I think I saw someone doing it.
But hey thanks for the info once agian, I'll try going to O-Reilys and order mine as well.

 

Woooopsss never mind, bought mine today at Pepboys for $6.50 total.

 

They Spiro you mean it shifts smoothly when you shift it or when computer shifts automatically? I just did mine today and yes I see the same better throttle response. It's more active.

I hoped that it would also fix the problem when I shift from 1-2-3 manually with my auto it would shift right away, but it doesn't still. It still takes about a second to shift to next gear. Hmmmm how can I fix that, I don't know maybe that's normal?
Spiro you know anything about that?

 

Shurik, I don't really know what you're talking about.

My car is an auto. When you floor it, it will go to redline in each gear before shifting to the next gear. My shifts at redline used to seem a bit sluggish, and the 2-3 shift was especially weird. When my car used to shift from 2-3, it seemed to go 2-3-cough-revlimit-cough-3. Now it doesn't do that.

I find it hard to believe that just cleaning my MAF sensor could account for such a dramatic improvement, but I don't know what else it could be.

 

what does everyone suggest for timing?degrees?

My max is stock. What mods should I do?

 

I can tell you that posts like that get you banned really quick.

Do a search.

 

 

Do us all a favor and leave forever. Do not post on the Org again.

You're a new member. Obviously you're aware of the fact that you can't post your own threads until you've posted in enough other threads. Hijacking other peoples' threads isn't what the mods had in mind, though.

Back on topic...

Who else has used this MAF sensor cleaner and noticed better shifting in an auto?

 

Spiro, did you try shifting gears manually? You know when you shift from 1-2 or 2-3rd the idle will keep rising and after a sec. it will then only shift. Did you notice that? It takes a while for the Max to shift gears when you do it manually. Try, maybe your Max is different. I noticed this since I got the max, maybe it'll all good, but who knows.
Well but I still see a difference in the Maxima's throttle response. Yep, this is good stuff!!!

2002MAXSEAUTO try using Stikies in the 5th gen forum, they'll help you with what you're looking for.

 

Unlike some other autos with gated shifters, our cars don't have a "manumatic" mode that is meant to let you control gear selection. Shifting "manually" on a 5.5th gen with the gated shifter is almost always going to be slower than just letting the computer shift for you. When you put your car in "1," you're merely telling it to lock out gears 2 through 4. When you move up to "2," you're telling it to lock out 3 and 4. When you go to "3," you're locking out 4. When you hit "D," you're telling the computer that it can use all four gears.

So let's say you're flooring it in "1." Your Max will jump off the line and go all the way up to redline, but instead of shifting to 2, it will just bounce off the rev limiter, because you told it not to use gears 2-4. If you shift to "2" just before redline, suddenly the computer has been told that it's ok to go to 2, but it takes a second to change modes and do its automagic calculations before it shifts. If you are driving hard and trying to shift at redline, the computer will do that automatically when you floor it if you just leave it in "D," and it will also downshift for quicker acceleration when you floor it if it is safe to do so based on your current speed and rpms. It is faster to leave the shifter in "D" so the computer knows that all gears are available from the start rather than trying to change modes on the fly.

So when should you use the lower gear selections to lock out higher gears? Well, it's nice to have the option of locking out higher gears when you're descending a steep grade (driving down a mountain road). This can help your brakes do less work by limiting your speed partially using your engine and transmission. This DOES put more strain on the engine and tranny, but that's a lot better than completely abusing your brakes, and it helps you control the car more easily if you use a combination of your "regular" braking and engine braking to control your descent speed. In Colorado and Tennessee, I've seen people with smoke coming from their brakes because they depended on their brakes alone to slow their descent. There are other situations where locking out the higher gears can be useful, but this thread has already gone far enough off topic.

 

how is everyone with the updated maf using the spray? the maf hot wire is up higher in the housing and cannot be seen unlike the old part. just curious.

 

sprayed mine today, together with a PCV valve change - no difference.

 

i noticed a difference.

also, in response to your other post, not all max's are the same. mine is race proven to be faster when manually shifted than when left in drive.