I'm currently disassembling the air box assembly so that I can remove the MAF sensor for a thorough cleansing. The problem is fairly simple: how do I remove the connector? Is it a key? Do I press hard upon the arrow (on what appears to be the key and pull as hard as possible?)

Any help would be appreciated since I've dropped two bolts below the air box and would like to be able to drive my car tomorrow.

Thank you!

01 Maxima SE

 

Push the clip in and pull.

 

It must take an act of god to get it freed up.

 

Mine comes out very easily. You're referring to the electrical connector, correct? Clean it up a bit.

 

Yeah, I pushed the part where it has an arrow on it. Do I need to wriggle it back and forth? I really don't want to tear up something seeing how I've owned my 5th gen less than two weeks.

 

Elbow grease man.

 

If you push it hard enough it pops out on it's own... very silly but true

 

yea them ****s is a bisch to get out... just use something and push down on it, like a big flathead
once u get it down far enough, it'll pop off, like all the other gay connectors

 

press in tab
pop off from bottom with screw driver

 

how hard is it to switch the maf sensor? mine is on it's last leg, and i need to get a new one. Is this something i can do easily myself? i've read that the ecu needs to be redone after installation, but putting it in myself would at least save me 'an hour' of labor costs. Are there any writeups that still exist and work?

 

Trick I found (for those who can't visualize the whole 'it just sorta pops out on its own' thing) - use something soft to press in one of the sides of the thing that the push-in (with arrow) is attached to. It's spring loaded. Push it all the way down (towards the end of the connector). Then, push in the thing with the arrow and extract. Eliminating all the time that it took to figure out the connector, I think one could wager that the MAF sensor replacement would take about 1 to 1.5 hours (for novice). The trick is finding out which pieces to remove first.

 

isn't the MAF just 4 bolts on 1 side and maybe a big hose on the other side?

 

Yep - but you have to get things out of the way for removal. I like the "efficiency" of the 5th gen design, but the 3rd/4th gen airbox was much easier to deal with.

 

If you're replacing the MAF, why not just remove the sensor and leave the housing.?

Explain

It's practically the same damn thing aside from the IAT in the A32.

 

huh? 1 to 1.5 hrs?
i think u got a typo and meant .1 to .15 hrs... which equals 6 to 9 minutes..

 

What the heck happened to all of the MAF sticky threads??? I've clicked on them to figure out how to install the MAF and it pops up to a thread that is irrelevant to the MAF. Arrggg....

 

They are trying to fix them. What seems to be your issue?

 

It feels like I've lost a ton of HP and my engine is pinging. From everything I've read, I'm concluding that it's the MAF. I was going to replace it and pray that it fixed the pinging and power problem. Does that sound about right?

 

Oh, and it's an 03 with 60k....

 

I have had to struggle with it too. I have only done it twice so far and both times it was such a pain. I was really surprised when I had to remove it the second time. I thought it would have been easy but no, I still spent over 15 minutes getting that connector off. Most of these connectors you need lot more "thumb power" to release them.

On similar topic, how difficult is the connector for the headlight bulb? The connector is yet a different type. I really wish Nissan would use standardized connectors with available removal tool.

- Vikas

 

I've got a P0171 SES code. 100K miles on the car. I was going to clean the MAF. Is it worth the effort to clean or should I just buy a new one. The light came on after I replaced the air filter. I've checked everything else and it all looks clean and tight.

 

I took out the airbox and pulled the MAF and cleaned it. Still have the light. While I was there, I noticed that the actual MAF sensor is held in by two tamper-proof torx screws. It would be MUCH easier to pull the two screws. You would not have to take anything else out. I'm going to get a Torx driver for my next removal. Hopefully the light will reset..if not, I'll be using that Torx driver soon!

 

tony i dont think its the maf look at your other thread for this issue
dont tamper with it
youll break it

 

Inspection of the MAF revealed a layer of junk covering 3/4 of the MAF (my 5th gen would randomly die when idling at a light). I cleaned the MAF and the idle issue went away (hurray for clean MAFs). But, about 200 miles into the clean MAF the SES light came on... now I have to go to AutoZone to figure out the code. But everything is running normally (from what I can tell).

 

hahaha this is funny.

Push DOWN on the tab in the direction of the arrow and lift the whole assembly upwards.