I’ve been getting a lot of hesitation lately and I’m speculating it might be my MAF. I do not have a CEL however a few other owners who have reported similar issues mentioned that by cleaning their MAF, they’ve eliminated the problem. I’ve read the infamous clean your MAF thread here on 6 speed. However, some of the pics that show where to spray are no longer visible in the thread. Where exactly do you spray to clean the MAF? Do you Spray the honeycombs, connectors, or elsewhere?

 

You will need a tamper-proof torx bit #20 to remove it. I bought a complete set of tamper-proof bits at my local auto parts store for about $6. MAF is located by yellow arrow in attached picture. Unsnap wiring connector, undo torx screws (one on each side) and pull MAF straight uo and out. Do not touch the wire (filament) but give it a good spray from all directions with cleaner then re-assemble. Takes about 2 minutes.

 

I have same question.

 

after you spray it with CRC let it dry for 15-20 minutes before reassebling. otherwise you can instantly blow it.

 

The working surface of the MAF (it is a hot film MAF not a hot wire style) is 'deep' in that hole that begins at the front/leading edge of the MAF and exits at the bottom/rear.

The hole/passageway describes a 'c' with a tail with the opening of the 'c' facing downward.

Do not shove anything in the hole/cavity.

While there is no wire the sensor's working surface could be scratched and this can upset the air flow.

Might add that car makers have gone to the hot film sensor because it is quite immune from the issues that caused hot wire sensors grief. The hot wire sensors had a wire cleaning cycle (heating the wire red hot to burn off dirt) while the hot film sensor has no such cleaning cycle. Doesn't need it.

Anyhow, just spray MAF cleaner (the no residue kind) all over the portion of the MAF that extends into the intake air stream and some into that hole/passage.

The cleaner I've used dries almost instantly. I might add the couple of times I've cleaned a MAF, sometimes after nearly 80K miles of driving, there wasn't any signs of dirt. The cleaning fluid ran clear from the MAF.

But if you want to clean it so be it.

Oh, handle the MAF with care. Do not drop it, do not static discharge to it and well, just treat it like the $400 (or more) high tech and sensitive device it is.

BTW, if you suspect the MAF you can disconnect the MAF at the wiring harness, and clear the error codes even if there are none present. Doing this sets all the learned fueling back to the defaults, the idea if the MAF is bad it will have fed the DME bad data that the DME will have used to build up fuel tables which of course will be wrong.

Then drive the car normally and see if the symptoms appear. If they do the MAF is probably not the cause. If they not reappear the MAF is probably the cause.

When you reconnect the MAF or replace it again clear the error codes so the DME starts out with its learned fueling set to the default.

Sincerely,

Macster.