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MAF blowing fuse

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Old Oct 7, 2018 | 12:02 PM
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Default MAF blowing fuse

Trying to fix someone else's project LS swap. New rewired stand alone harness had the engine running fine then suddenly engine died from a blown ECM fuse. Traced the short to the MAF. Unplug the the MAF and short goes away but engine runs like ***(for obvious reasons). MAF is good. Disconnect the pink MAF wire from the harness, plug-in the MAF, and the engine runs perfect. My questions: How did this pink wire from MAF suddenly short out? How is the engine receiving a signal from the MAF when the pink supply wire is disconnected from 12v?
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Old Oct 7, 2018 | 12:40 PM
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If you unhook the pink wire and it doesn't blow the fuse, then the pink wire isnt shorted, it's going to be one of the 2 that go to the pcm that are not the temp sensor wires. It probably runs better with just the one wire unhooked but with the MAF plugged in because the intake air temp sensor is plugged in.
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Old Oct 7, 2018 | 02:38 PM
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Originally Posted by ls1nova71
If you unhook the pink wire and it doesn't blow the fuse, then the pink wire isnt shorted, it's going to be one of the 2 that go to the pcm that are not the temp sensor wires. It probably runs better with just the one wire unhooked but with the MAF plugged in because the intake air temp sensor is plugged in.
Forgot to mention that air temp switch is in the MAF. Using a test light I can prove that the pink wire is shorted with the MAF plugged in. When I unplug the the MAF the test light goes off. But I think I understand what you're saying. 5 wires on the MAF plug. The pink supply wire(disconnected to keep from blowing fuse), 2 grounds, signal, and 12v. You're saying that either signal or 12v wire is shorted.?
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Old Oct 7, 2018 | 02:44 PM
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Your MAF is actually 2 things; MAF and IAT sensor. What was said that plugging it back in allowed the IAT to work and engine run smoother. Yeah, the MAF is still compromised.
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Old Oct 8, 2018 | 03:53 PM
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Is there anything else that the pink wire is feeding that could be at issue? On factory GM harnesses the O2 sensors are also fed from the same fuse as the MAF sensor. When you say you have removed the pink wire, are you just removing it from the MAF sensor? As a test you could unplug all O2 sensors and then test again.
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Old Oct 8, 2018 | 06:16 PM
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Originally Posted by Kawabuggy
Is there anything else that the pink wire is feeding that could be at issue? On factory GM harnesses the O2 sensors are also fed from the same fuse as the MAF sensor. When you say you have removed the pink wire, are you just removing it from the MAF sensor? As a test you could unplug all O2 sensors and then test again.
I assumed he was just unplugging the pink wire from the MAF plug? If that's the case, it wouldn't be anything else on that fuse, but good call though.

Originally Posted by HeavyDeez
Forgot to mention that air temp switch is in the MAF. Using a test light I can prove that the pink wire is shorted with the MAF plugged in. When I unplug the the MAF the test light goes off. But I think I understand what you're saying. 5 wires on the MAF plug. The pink supply wire(disconnected to keep from blowing fuse), 2 grounds, signal, and 12v. You're saying that either signal or 12v wire is shorted.?
How are you testing it with a test light? If you're piercing a wire, the worst way to test a wire in my opinion, but that's not the issue, then, it still will be completing the circuit through the MAF, so if one of the signal wires is shorted, then you will not know if it's the pink wire or not. I would unplug the MAF and both PCM plugs and test for continuity to ground on the two signal wires. If its blowing the fuse straight away, then it should be pretty easy to find out which wire it is. If it is not then you may need to move the harness around a bit while testing for continuity to ground.


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Old Oct 9, 2018 | 08:49 AM
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Here's the diag procedure I performed when I had the blown ECM fuse. Tested each wire that was on the blown circuit. Determined what wire was shorted and followed it. That wire had a splice that split into 3 wires(all pink). Separated those three wires and tested each one to determine the short. Spliced the other 2 wires back into the circuit and replaced the fuse. Only 3 things could have been on that shorted pink wire-O2's, MAF, and transmission. With my test wire clipped on the end of the pink wire that is disconnected, I unplugged each one of those until the test light went off. BINGO, the MAF is the culprit! I installed a good MAF and still have the short.

If I leave the MAF plugged in the engine runs good. Unplug the the MAF and short goes away but engine runs like ***(for obvious reasons).
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Old Oct 9, 2018 | 07:43 PM
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Your engine should not "run like ***" when the MAF is unplugged. If you notice a big change in how the engine runs when the MAF is unplugged, then you have tuning issues ahead of you. Without the MAF, the PCM relies on the VE table to run the engine. If that table is RIGHT, then unplugging the MAF will have little to no effect on the engines idle, and running, characteristics.

I understand you are just focusing on the dead-short at this time so I hope my post is not adding further confusion to your challenges. Just plan on tuning this vehicle when you get the short sorted out because based on what you are saying-the VE table is not right.
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Old Oct 9, 2018 | 11:03 PM
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Originally Posted by HeavyDeez
Here's the diag procedure I performed when I had the blown ECM fuse. Tested each wire that was on the blown circuit. Determined what wire was shorted and followed it. That wire had a splice that split into 3 wires(all pink). Separated those three wires and tested each one to determine the short. Spliced the other 2 wires back into the circuit and replaced the fuse. Only 3 things could have been on that shorted pink wire-O2's, MAF, and transmission. With my test wire clipped on the end of the pink wire that is disconnected, I unplugged each one of those until the test light went off. BINGO, the MAF is the culprit! I installed a good MAF and still have the short.

If I leave the MAF plugged in the engine runs good. Unplug the the MAF and short goes away but engine runs like ***(for obvious reasons).
I guess I still don't understand how you are testing them? Are you adding power to the wires then hooking a test light up to them? Or using a powered test light or something? I see where you are going with this, but I think what you don't understand is that you need to complete the circuit, so when you plug the MAF in, if one of the signal wires are shorted, it will blow the fuse, unplug the MAF, the circuit is not completed, thus no blown fuse because it is no longer shorted. If it were in fact the pink wire that was shorted, it would blow the fuse with or without the MAF plugged in. Can you do a continuity test on the 2 signal wires like I posted earlier? That will get you further I would think.
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Old Nov 1, 2018 | 06:19 PM
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Update. I'm still stumped. I test the 2 signal wires (IAT tan, MAF yellow) like LS1nova71 suggested and neither wire is grounded. After more testing I discovered that with the MAF connected the pink wire (12v power) completes the circuit to ground thru the ground wire (black). How is this possible? I thought maybe the connector was bad so I test with a different connector but same result. Out of desperation I cut the ground wire and connected the pink wire back to 12v. Engine idles great but no power and slow to rev. I thought that maybe the MAF had shorted but 2 different MAF's had same results(one MAF is off my daily driver).
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Old May 19, 2019 | 11:57 AM
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Originally Posted by HeavyDeez
Update. I'm still stumped. ...
OP, if you're subscribed; please come back and post the solution/resolution, for the benefit of others.
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Old May 5, 2021 | 11:46 AM
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Default My solution

Originally Posted by TipsyMcStagger
OP, if you're subscribed; please come back and post the solution/resolution, for the benefit of others.

hi everyone I have been working on a third Gen Iroc LS2/4L70E swap and had similar problems after hooking up the maf. I used this for reference and like to share my solution since I wish I heard back from this one.
We had been running the engine before with no problems although my buddy did arc a wrench to ground after we forgot to disconnect the battery when relocating the racetronix fuel pump wire. The engine ran ok after replacing a couple of fuses after that, once the maf was plugged in the aftermarket stand alone fuse box kept blowing the maf/iat 15A fuse. we checked anything relevant to the circuit found the 12V pink wire from terminal D on the connector to have a short to ground. We couldn’t find anything damaged . After feeling stumped (not having a wiring diagram sucks as well) I called tech support from the company we got the harness from, after some back and forth he told me to check the connector & de- pin the 12V pink wire or cut it, which I had to do because after trying to de-pin it...I could not pull it out! After I simply cut the wire the engine started!! I ordered a connector and will test out the Maf to see what caused the connector to short out.
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