MAF cleaning - huge improvement

[NeoP]

Folks,

take a spray can with brake cleaner and clean your maf by gently spraying on it - just had huge torque improvements!! Did this some time ago on a pals porsche that wouldnt rev over 5000 anymore - FIXED! Do not touch anything inside the MAF though as this may harm...

[rookie_98]

are you talking about the little wires inside. did you just clean the inner outer part? pic of maf with parts in red that aren't supposed to be sprayed?

[cooljess76]

While I like to use brake cleaner to clean just about anything as it doesn't harm rubber and plastic or leave a residue, I wouldn't advise spraying it inside of your MAF. The film in there is very delicate and can easily be damaged by harsh chemicals. However, they do sell MAF and electrical parts cleaner at your local auto parts store. The brand I use is made by CRC and comes in a gray can. As an alternative, you could use rubbing alcohol on a Qtip, just be extremely careful.

[NeoP]

Well, here in Germany this way is quite popular and worked fine in all cases so far ;-)
I simply sprayed short but focused onto the thing that measures everything (easy to discover) and did not touch it. You cant go wrong so i didn't take any pics. Guess if you are spraying too hard or to much and maybe rub it with a qtip it may get damaged but this way seems quite efficient :-)

[rookie_98]

my car didn't stay on anyway after an icv, smog thing, and ecv cleaning, all with brake cleaner. damnit, it turns on then you have to push the gas to keep it on, too much gas and it kind of backfires somewhere in the engine bay. then if you let go of the gas it just dies, immediately. DMAAAANIT!!

[BlackBMWs]

Curious... I have cleaned many MAFs over the years and had an odd one this last time around on my M44 MAF.

I cleaned the MAF with CRC MAF cleaner when I had the intake apart a week ago. Since then, I've received four engine codes (P0100, P0111, P300, P0302) and have a rough idle. Could be ICV, but it is rougher than what I recall pre cleaning. The P0100 and P0111 points to MAF / airflow. The two P030x codes I suspect are outcomes of the first two codes.

So, my question is: Has anyone damaged their MAF when cleaning it? This is a first for me for easily over seventy MAF cleanings across different cars. As I mention above, my cleaner of choice is CRC MAF cleaner.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to pick up a used MAF from a forum member, (Thanks!) as well as a new aftermarket MAF for a cheap price. (I wonder about it's quality) for $46 shipped I can afford to give it a go. I'll run the new AM one to check how well it does as I notice forum members needing one from time to time and $300+ is pretty steep nowadays.

[ofset]

can P1174 be triggered by a dirty MAF?

thanks,
Daniel