Muahahha! I out smarted my broken MAFS Today I started out my day and headed out. About 5 minutes from home my car stalls, I think ohh great.. I knew right off the bat it was my stupid MAFS. I decided to keep on going about my bussiness. Now when ever the car was in Nuetral it would just stall out. So the problem is noted.. I get home and think to my self a damn MAFS allready got the best of me, I'm not letting this happen again! So reason for the MAFS failure is the fact that a after market oiled filter got oil on teh electronics, this is a given. So I wonder down to the basement wondering to my self what could safely get this oil off.. Hmm, I see my K&N recharge kit starring me in the eye, lol. I inspect the box and I look at the bottle of "air filter cleaner". Hmm, it says it removes the old oil and cleans out the filter. Well if it effectively and safely cleans the oil off of a cotton filter it might work on the fine electronics found in the MAFS.


Long story short, I removed the MAFS, then I took the actual guts of the MAFS out of the MAFS tube. I sprayed the K&N filter cleaner all over the the damn thing. I let it sit for 10 minutes. Then I rinsed the the MAFS off real good with some tap water. I then grabbed my trusty heat gun and I used it to dry the MAFS out real good. Next I installed the MAFS guts back into the tube and reinstalled the whole thing onto my car. Started the car up, car idled perfectly! Went out for a good 12 mile ride and the car seems to be 100% fixed! So to all of you who have mafs problems or for the people who will encounter them, there is now a cure! If this holds true we should add this to the facts. I will update the situation over the next few days

 

Nice man. Luckily (while knocking on wood) I haven't had a problem yet. This is really nice to know.

 

whoa, spraying soap onto fine electronics then rinsing it off in water... haha damn

 

You've got to be fuking kidding me!

 

If its malfunctioning, nothing to lose.

 

I had a MAF problem and used TB cleaner on mine and now it works fine....I have a mechanic at a nissan dealership who doesn side jobs for me and he said it wouldnt do any harm to it.

 

Exactly, I figured worst case scenirio is my car will still be broken, lol. When I re-installed it and cranked the motor I was really wondering if it was gona start. It fired right up though!

 

I think this would be a better idea.... or probably a brake cleaner?

 

Maybe you shouldn't put oil on it this time? Do you really notive that it catches that much dirt? I've never oiled mine in the 6+ months I've had it and I have had no problems..
-Cyrus

 

I've been cleaning MAF's with Intake Cleaner. You don't need water with that stuff. Just spray it on and the gunk falls off. It air dries in minutes. I think thats a much better way to clean your MAF.

I clean my MAF with every air filter recharge. Never had a problem.

 

nice discovery Ethan!! now maybe my boy Joe can get an intake again for his 02' max again

Ant

 

VW and Subaru drivers have become experts at cleaning out MAFS. Theirs are way more sensitive and delicate than ours.

Anyway, one cleaning technique that seems popular is to put the complete MAF in a plastic bag. Then put about half a cup of rubbing alcohol in the bag and swish it around until the MAF is clean.

 

im gonna try that, mine feels is a little laggy

 

nice fix!

 

I've been saying this for some time. This has been a common fix on many boards for the K&N. If the dealer tells you it needs replacing or you buy a new one...you are wasting money plain and simple. There is NO WAY oil will cause a MAF to die. The MAF gets coated in oil which screws up the readings which causes the computer to become 'confused'.

I would recommend using TB cleaner. What is the MAF made of anyway? I would be afraid of water or water based products corroding the MAF.

 

Any electronics cleaner should do the trick then. Alcohol is good too because it dries completely and quickly.

 

Interesting, I almost used rubbing alcohol to clean mine. BTW what makes the VW and subaru MAFS more sensitive/delicate?

 

I don't agree with this statement. It clearly say's right on the bottle to spray on the cleaner then to "rinse it off after 10 minutes". With out rinsing it off there will defiantly be dry soapy liquid left on it.



Using the heat gun got every last bit of liquid out right after I rinsed.

 

Emax, my 2001 Maxima had the same problem. My cone intake I got from MAtrix was over oiled. After about 10 min of driving, my car went into a form of dieing, to not going over 4k of rpms. The car just was having problems. I removed the intake, and saw that the MAF had oil on it. I used CARB Cleaner and sprayed it on the wire really well, and air dryed it by holding it in my hand and swinging it for a little while. After reinstalling it, and cleaned the cone and reoiled correctly, the car ran great after that.

 

what about the monsterflow? those are just sponges, do they have oil in them too?

 

I wish I would've come upon this thread before I bought another MAF from a member off this board.

_______________________
SHIFT_ MAFS

 

Ditto. Electronics parts cleaner, b/c the MAFS is a what?

Nice going Emax

DW

 

Update: MAFS is broken again My car is going in this week for a tranny replacement and a MAFS replacement under waranty. So much broken stuff, it's starting to get on my nerves..

 

MWHAHAHAHA the MAF Monster has bitten you several times i see...

 

 

at least its not as bad as steve...the MAF Monster is following him like theres no tommrow.

 

You don't want to go with the Apexi Filter? I got one from Steve to keep everything dry.

 

Dang Ewok, I guess that's what you get for being on the bleeding edge.

 

I dont reccomend anyone using carb cleaner, the rubbing alcohol is a lot safer. The two elements in the MAFS are tungsten and a thin film resistor. The tungsten can handle it but the resistor can be damaged if you use too strong of a solvent (ie carb cleaner).

 

he's getting one, I FINALLY got my order in today, 25 of them and i think they are almost all gone people have been waiting for them. i'm gonna order another dozen this week.

my maf did die with a Apexi fitler on it, it lasted 6 months though but i'm still not happy. i got another coming from a junkyard tomorrow. and yes the maf monster sleeps under my bed.

 

Steve i don't understand how you blow so many MAF's, my car is older (99.5) and i haven't had MAF problems yet, or atleast that i notice :-/ ........by the way the MAF is the part that is between a midpipe and the intake correct? I think mine needs a cleaning

 

The 4th gen Maximas seem to have robust MAFS. Apparently, the Minima-ness of blown MAFS seems to be a 5th gen exclusive.

DW

 

was i correct on where the MAF is

 

yes. the maf is located inside of part of intake tubing. if my memory serves me correct, the 4th gen maf piece that you actually see is larger than the 5th gen one. the 5th gen is a plug with the wires exposed, the 4th gen is closed from what i remember.

 

Yeah, that's about it. It goes like this;

throttle body->mid-pipe->MAFS->air filter.

There's a plug harness connected to it. When you take it out, you'll see a fine mesh screen (only on the in-coming air side), black when dirty, nice shiny gold when clean. The safest thing to use is electrical parts cleaner. You can buy that at radio shack etc. Just blast spray it all over and the stuff evaporates almost instantly. That's how I did mine. Once finished, I didn't really notice any differerence I guess piece of mind


DW