Mass air flow sensor
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 122
Likes: 0
From: West Virginia
Mass air flow sensor I have been having trouble my car running lean and timing was around 32 at wot! It finally blew a head gasket! I talked to Ed Wright who did my tuning and he pulled up my file and it only had 22 degrees when cold and 16 when it is warm ! Talked to him for about an hour he told me that the mass air flow sensor went bad or got some oil on it and that this would cause the trouble! He said this happens all the time he keeps extra there just in case! Has anyone heard of this? He discribed my problem to a tee! (ltfc at 25 car beening lean ; sluglish; timing that high) It is a stock mass air flow sensor! 
Are you by chance running a K&N air filter? If so that's where the contamination is most likely coming from. I recently had a P0103 code after WOT which is a higher than normal frequency signal from the MAF. It causes the car to go into the low octane timing table (less advance) & as a result less power. I solved it by replacing my K&N with a paper filter & cleaning the MAF with electrical cleaner & Q-Tips. Works perfect now (no codes) & gained 3 tenths last night at the track.
TECH Apprentice
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 321
Likes: 0
From: Buffalo, N.Y.
I've read that a good preventive maintenance tip for MAFs is to spray the sensor wires running across the inside of the MAF with electronics cleaner spray. This knocks the crud buil-up off the wires, and allows them to read air flow accurately. Of course, I've also heard that newer LS1 MAFs have an automatic MAF wire heat-up cleaning cycle, so go figure.
