How To Clean Your Mass Airflow Sensor

DIY Difficulty Level: Beginner to Intermediate, depending on how easy or hard information technology is to attain and remove the mass air menstruum sensor on your item vehicle.
Time Required: 5-90 minutes, depending on how easy or difficult it is to attain and remove the mass air menses sensor on your item vehicle.
Tools & Materials:
- Air intake cleaner
- Screwdrivers, wrenches, and whatsoever else is needed to access the mass air period sensor on your detail vehicle

What Is the Mass Air Flow Sensor and What Does It Exercise?

The mass air flow sensor (MAF) enables the ECU (the computer that runs the engine) to summate and add the proper amount of fuel to enable the engine to run at peak power and efficiency. Sometimes this sensor can get clogged with debris or fail entirely. This gives the ECU inaccurate information and causes an wrong air and fuel mixture.

If yous don't feel comfortable cleaning the mass air catamenia sensor yourself, don't worry! Here's how much it will cost to have a professional replace it.

Where Is the MAF Sensor?

The exact location varies from one vehicle to another, but it'southward more often than not somewhere in your air intake system between the air filter and the intake manifold. Await for a sensor sticking into the middle of the intake tubing, oft virtually the air filter for easy admission.

See Footstep 1 beneath for an image of where the MAF sensor is located.

How Practise Y'all Exam the Mass Air Flow Sensor?

Thanks to OBD2, the ECU is constantly checking information from the MAF sensor and other sensors in your engine to make certain everything is working properly.

If your cheque engine light is on and you suspect the mass air flow sensor is the cause, yous tin test this with an OBD2 browse tool like the FIXD scanner and app.

Plug your scan tool into your machine's OBD2 port, become to View Live Data, and check the MAF sensor readings. You should see a number that corresponds to how much air is going into the engine. When the car is warmed upwards and idling with the air conditioner off, this should be a fairly small number. It should modify slightly but stay close to the same value.

Printing the gas pedal to rev the engine. The number should increment dramatically, since a lot more than air is all of a sudden rushing into the engine. You tin too concord the engine at certain RPMs to check the MAF sensor value there. For example, at 2,000 RPM the value should be higher than at idle, only lower than at 4,000 RPM.

If what you observe in the alive data does not match this behavior, information technology well-nigh certainly ways your mass air flow sensor is dirty or has failed entirely. There is no way to reset it, but yous can try to make clean it, and and so supercede it if a cleaning doesn't set the problem.

Is It Safety to Drive with a Bad Mass Air Flow Sensor?

In the curt term, you lot should be fine. If you continue to drive while this problem gets worse, though, information technology could cause your engine to misfire. Ignoring a misfire could result in ignition failure, catalytic converter damage, and unsafe or dangerous weather condition while operating the vehicle. Cleaning or replacing the mass air flow sensor sooner rather than later will avoid these potentially more than serious and expensive issues.

A mechanic volition typically supervene upon the mass air flow sensor regardless of whether information technology's dingy or has failed completely. It'due south the same corporeality of work either way. If they clean it, put your intake organisation back together, and it doesn't gear up the problem, they accept to do the same chore all over again, then information technology's actually cheaper for a mechanic to supersede the sensor the first time. That volition cost roughly $317 to $330.

If you're comfortable taking apart your air intake system yourself, information technology's definitely worth trying to make clean the mass air flow sensor earlier you supervene upon it. All you need is time, maybe a few basic tools (my Ford van required no tools at all), and a $3 can of air intake cleaner.

*These prices are based on national averages. Related repairs or maintenance may as well be needed.

When to Clean or Supersede the Mass Air Flow Sensor

The MAF sensor is not an item that appears on your maintenance schedule, only like any sensor, they can occasionally neglect. The best preventive maintenance you can do is to replace your engine air filter frequently according to your manufacturer recommended maintenance schedule. That style, the air going through your MAF sensor and into your engine will exist free of dirt and debris that can clog it or crusade it to fail.

*For a custom maintenance schedule based on your make, model, and mileage, download the free FIXD app.

What Are Common Symptoms Indicating You Need to Make clean the MAF Sensor?

If you lot experience whatever of these symptoms, information technology's possible a dingy or bad MAF sensor may exist the cause:

Hesitation (when y'all press the gas pedal, the motorcar pauses before accelerating)
Misfires
Loss of power
Check engine light
Codes P0171 and/or P0174

Proceed in Mind

Since you will already be taking your air intake organization apart, have a look at your engine air filter whether it's fourth dimension to replace it or not. If it's dirty, supplant the air filter now. If yous've driven through particularly dirty or dusty weather, the filter may get dirty before than expected.

Now is also a adept time to make clean your throttle torso. It tin go dirty the same manner equally the MAF sensor, and you employ the same solvent to make clean both, so it should only take a few minutes while you lot're already in there.

How It's Washed

Step ane: Find your air intake system.

Every vehicle is different, so look online or in your repair manual to identify your air intake system. My Ford E250's intake is conveniently located direct under the hood. (Yes, it's dirty.)

Stride two: Take apart your air intake system and observe the MAF sensor.

The intake consists of a series of tubes, usually plastic, merely sometimes metallic. Remove your engine air filter, then locate the MAF sensor somewhere between the filter and the engine. In my Ford van, the mass air flow sensor sits right behind the air filter, and is easy to reach one time the filter is removed.

This is too a smashing opportunity to examine your air filter to see if it needs replacement. In my situation, information technology did.

Stride iii: Clean the MAF sensor.

Start the engine. Ordinarily you don't want to run the engine without an air filter, merely for this job it'south ok to practise information technology for a brusk time. Grab your can of intake cleaner (I used CRC Mass Air Period Sensor Cleaner), and spray it at the MAF sensor. The engine will slow down and about stall while you lot exercise this. This is normal. A second or so after each spray, the engine should run normally again. Use several brief squirts, rather than i long one, to brand sure the engine keeps breathing and running. Spray as many parts of the sensor as you tin can reach.

Don't worry about spraying this detail liquid into your engine. It'due south designed specifically for this job. While you don't usually want to spray liquid into your engine, this cleaner will burn upwards harmlessly along with the gas, which is why you lot want to run the engine while spraying it.

You may get additional OBD2 codes while yous practise this. When I cleaned my MAF sensor, I triggered a P2197 lawmaking. Normally this means that the engine is getting too much air for the amount of fuel it can provide the engine. Since it happened while I was cleaning the sensor, I knew that wasn't the true cause, and that information technology was safe to ignore only this once.

Pace 4: Reassemble your air intake system.

Now that you've cleaned the sensor, you can reinstall your air filter and annihilation else you had to remove to achieve it. At present is as well a good time to install a new air filter if your old one was dirty, like mine was. Put everything back together the way you institute it.

Step 5: Use the FIXD scanner and app to articulate your engine codes.

To observe out if this has solved your problem, articulate your codes and keep on driving. If a simple cleaning has stock-still the sensor, your engine should run smoothly and the bank check engine light should remain off and your trouble is solved. Only afterward doing this task myself, I did an fourscore-mile trip of mixed city and highway driving. The check engine light did not return.

If the symptoms described above return or remain, information technology's time to supervene upon the MAF sensor. The good news is that since yous just cleaned information technology, yous already know how to discover your MAF sensor under the hood. You lot should exist able to replace it yourself instead of having a mechanic do it for you.

Claim Your Custom Maintenance Schedule

Become the FIXD Sensor and free app today for a custom maintenance schedule based on your make, model, and mileage. Never miss important maintenance again with automated maintenance alerts! Learn more at fixd.com.

Recovering autocross and track 24-hour interval enthusiast. Once turned a VW Jetta into a pickup truck. Lives in a van down by the river. Dream car: 2001 Subaru WRC rally machine.

Source: https://www.fixdapp.com/blog/how-to-clean-your-mass-air-flow-sensor/

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