MAF Cleaning?
MAF Cleaning?
04-28-2003, 07:59 PM
#2
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Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Petersham, MA
Posts: 1,697
Re: MAF Cleaning?
Originally posted by Smokn '94 Z
What is the safest & best solvent to use when cleaning the MAF sensor? Also what to use..... (Q-Tip, Rag, etc..)
Thanks
What is the safest & best solvent to use when cleaning the MAF sensor? Also what to use..... (Q-Tip, Rag, etc..)
Thanks
04-28-2003, 08:16 PM
#3
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 570
Do not mess with touching the MAF, you risk breaking it or messing up its calibrations. Use electrical contact cleaner like you would buy at Radio Shack. Just spray it on and let it dry off, it won't take long, and if the MAF has never been cleaned you will REALLY notice a difference in the clean vs dirty.
04-28-2003, 09:09 PM
#4
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 3,674
Originally posted by hairbear21
Do not mess with touching the MAF, you risk breaking it or messing up its calibrations. Use electrical contact cleaner like you would buy at Radio Shack. Just spray it on and let it dry off, it won't take long, and if the MAF has never been cleaned you will REALLY notice a difference in the clean vs dirty.
Do not mess with touching the MAF, you risk breaking it or messing up its calibrations. Use electrical contact cleaner like you would buy at Radio Shack. Just spray it on and let it dry off, it won't take long, and if the MAF has never been cleaned you will REALLY notice a difference in the clean vs dirty.
04-28-2003, 09:18 PM
#5
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: PA
Posts: 1,574
Originally posted by hairbear21
Do not mess with touching the MAF, you risk breaking it or messing up its calibrations. Use electrical contact cleaner like you would buy at Radio Shack. Just spray it on and let it dry off, it won't take long, and if the MAF has never been cleaned you will REALLY notice a difference in the clean vs dirty.
Do not mess with touching the MAF, you risk breaking it or messing up its calibrations. Use electrical contact cleaner like you would buy at Radio Shack. Just spray it on and let it dry off, it won't take long, and if the MAF has never been cleaned you will REALLY notice a difference in the clean vs dirty.
04-28-2003, 09:34 PM
#8
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Join Date: May 2000
Location: Peachtree City, GA
Posts: 2,889
Originally posted by chasmanz28
ok i was going to use tb cleaner on it
ok i was going to use tb cleaner on it
MArcin
04-28-2003, 09:49 PM
#9
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Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Perry, GA
Posts: 216
The electrical contact cleaner is what I used on mine also. I bought it from radio shack, and it worked very good, Apparently my MAFS was dirty because my Throttle response seemed better after a couple of good cleanings.
04-28-2003, 09:54 PM
#10
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: PA
Posts: 1,574
Originally posted by darkangel95
The electrical contact cleaner is what I used on mine also. I bought it from radio shack, and it worked very good, Apparently my MAFS was dirty because my Throttle response seemed better after a couple of good cleanings.
The electrical contact cleaner is what I used on mine also. I bought it from radio shack, and it worked very good, Apparently my MAFS was dirty because my Throttle response seemed better after a couple of good cleanings.
04-28-2003, 10:04 PM
#11
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Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Winnipeg
Posts: 438
Steps to cleaning a MAF properly.
1) Take MAF out of car
2) Very carefully, take the ends off by removing the Torx driver screws
3) With a paper towel, very lightly rub the gunk off
You will not clean off the gunk by just spraying contact cleaner on it and letting it dry. It will NOT dissolve the gunk that will be on it.
You will not break anything if you are very careful. The internals aren't that sensitive, and by no means will you screw up the "calibration". All a MAF is is three aluminum bars and three resistors. You'll see when you open it up. I accidently dropped the sensor with the ends off, and lo and behold my car runs fine.
It's a piece of cake, and it isn't a biological agent that requires detox suit and super tedious handling.
1) Take MAF out of car
2) Very carefully, take the ends off by removing the Torx driver screws
3) With a paper towel, very lightly rub the gunk off
You will not clean off the gunk by just spraying contact cleaner on it and letting it dry. It will NOT dissolve the gunk that will be on it.
You will not break anything if you are very careful. The internals aren't that sensitive, and by no means will you screw up the "calibration". All a MAF is is three aluminum bars and three resistors. You'll see when you open it up. I accidently dropped the sensor with the ends off, and lo and behold my car runs fine.
It's a piece of cake, and it isn't a biological agent that requires detox suit and super tedious handling.
04-28-2003, 10:06 PM
#12
Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 570
Take the MAF out of the car, and also take out the screen that's in the MAF. That way you will be able to get a nice thorough cleaning for it. Use a flat tip screwdriver or needle nose pliers to remove the retaining ring and the screen will come out very easily. Do not damage the ring, and put the screen back in, because you ma notice driveability issues.
04-28-2003, 10:08 PM
#13
Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: PA
Posts: 1,574
Originally posted by Lions3
Steps to cleaning a MAF properly.
1) Take MAF out of car
2) Very carefully, take the ends off by removing the Torx driver screws
3) With a paper towel, very lightly rub the gunk off
You will not clean off the gunk by just spraying contact cleaner on it and letting it dry. It will NOT dissolve the gunk that will be on it.
You will not break anything if you are very careful. The internals aren't that sensitive, and by no means will you screw up the "calibration". All a MAF is is three aluminum bars and three resistors. You'll see when you open it up. I accidently dropped the sensor with the ends off, and lo and behold my car runs fine.
It's a piece of cake, and it isn't a biological agent that requires detox suit and super tedious handling.
Steps to cleaning a MAF properly.
1) Take MAF out of car
2) Very carefully, take the ends off by removing the Torx driver screws
3) With a paper towel, very lightly rub the gunk off
You will not clean off the gunk by just spraying contact cleaner on it and letting it dry. It will NOT dissolve the gunk that will be on it.
You will not break anything if you are very careful. The internals aren't that sensitive, and by no means will you screw up the "calibration". All a MAF is is three aluminum bars and three resistors. You'll see when you open it up. I accidently dropped the sensor with the ends off, and lo and behold my car runs fine.
It's a piece of cake, and it isn't a biological agent that requires detox suit and super tedious handling.
04-28-2003, 10:10 PM
#14
Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Alabama
Posts: 172
I asked one of the tech guys at the dealership about cleaning it and he said that I shouldn't use anything and that it will go through a clean or burn off cycle for the wires. Sounded good to me. Just thought that I would throw this out there to see if he was feeding me a line or if anybody else had heard this.
04-28-2003, 10:14 PM
#15
Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Winnipeg
Posts: 438
One more thing before you go on. Just a bit more detail to help you out.
The sensor splits into three parts. The two ends and the sensor unit. The sensor is the black plastic part.
If you look at it as air would flow through it, there are three sets of parallel metal bars that run vertically. On these bars, there are three resistors (Or diodes?) spot welded on horizontally, connecting the bars.
When you rub the gunk off, you don't need to apply any pressure at all. It rubs off very easily, but it really wouldn't go anywhere without physical contact since it is very gunky. It actually does look like fried filter oil, since it is so oily and gummy. When I sprayed it with contact cleaner, it wouldn't do anything. It just got wet and then dried.
The sensor splits into three parts. The two ends and the sensor unit. The sensor is the black plastic part.
If you look at it as air would flow through it, there are three sets of parallel metal bars that run vertically. On these bars, there are three resistors (Or diodes?) spot welded on horizontally, connecting the bars.
When you rub the gunk off, you don't need to apply any pressure at all. It rubs off very easily, but it really wouldn't go anywhere without physical contact since it is very gunky. It actually does look like fried filter oil, since it is so oily and gummy. When I sprayed it with contact cleaner, it wouldn't do anything. It just got wet and then dried.