DIY MAF Sensor Cleaning

MAF Sensor Cleaning

UPDATE!!!
http://www.spydermagazine.com/2002/March/maf_clean/maf_clean.htm

Cleaning the MAF sensor is very vital and important to maintaining your cars performance. I could not find information on servicing this component in any manuals or from any machanics because it is a part that is expected to last the life of the car. Well guess what! IT DOESN'T! It basically progressivly collects garbage and looses efficency until your car basically runs like ass but still has a good enough reading to fool the ECU into thinking everything is okay. It took me weeks to figure this out and a lot of forum trolling in all makes and models across the web. Anyways I'll stop my babbling.
The MAF sensor is one of the primary sensors in your car that tells the ECU how to manage the air/fuel mixture. If this sensor goes bad the car will not even run that is how important its readings are. Anyways the sensor works by heating a wire up to a fixed temperature and then messuring how much voltage it takes to keep that little wire at that fixed temperature in the direct path of air comming into the throttle body. This means that if crap flys by this sensor and touches the wire it will melt onto it and eventually the wire will become completely coated with crap. When this happens it takes more voltage to keep the wire at its fixed temperature which makes the motor beleive that more air is comming in then what is actually comming in. This leads to the engine putting in eay too much fuel and as a result your car runs rich, underpowered and eats gas like a mofo and in some cases blows out white smoke.
Anyways I spent my entire day today researching this sensor to the bone. After all of my research I decided to go and buy a can of Electronic Contact Cleaner (No Residue) and proceeded with spraying off the 3 wires inside of the MAF sensor. To my surpise the wires dropped in circumference by about half and turned shiney silver They were completely coated in garbage. After letting the cleaner evaporate over the next half hour I returned the sensor and started the car. The idle was smooth as silk which I have not had for a long time so I was really happy with just that fact.
Anyways I decided to go for a test drive. I noticed immediatly that the throttle response was crisper then I ever remembered it and takeoffs were smooth and strong. So I proceeded to floor it because I wanted to see what it felt like at the top end. HOLY @#$%ing SHIT. Now my Lightened Flywheel and Exhaust mod feel like they actually did something. The car reved up 2x faster then it ever has and put me in my seat. I broke the tires loose shifting into 2nd gear which I have not done in a long time (note I have 7.5 inch wide tires not stock, with stocks you could probably break them in 3rd too). And the exhaust is like 2x louder then it was before (Not too great but I don't care at this point)!
Anyways I'm not yanking your chain. This is a gold mine tidbit of information. Also note that I had a K&N filter and my research has shown that the oil from the K&N filter will get stuck to the wires on this sensor and then dust particles will stick to the oil. If you have a K&N filter make sure you clean the MAF sensor with every oil change for best performance. If you have a paper filter you may find that this mod doesn't do anything for you but I'm betting that everyone with 60k+ has some grime on those wires and if you remove it your in for a world of difference. Sorry for all the spelling errors but I'm not going to re-read and correct this because I'm too lazy. If you want to know the exact process and products I used let me know and I'll post some pictures.
Otherwise have fun cleaning it and thank me when you realize that your car has really been dragging its ass all these months and your mods have been getting robbed blind Oh yeah! Make sure you unplug your negative terminal after cleaning the sensor to reset your ECU. Otherwise your results will not be as dramatic because the ECU will adjust over time instead of starting off with the fresh new readings from the clean MAF.

2001 Toyota Corolla but this DIY applies to any and every car built with a MAF sensor They all have the same problem. I'll take some pictures today or tomorrow and post them.

looks good. Thanks for doing this DIY but next time, make paragraphs

No MAF eh. Lame. MAF's are cool. They get dirty and make your car run bad

I just cleaned mine last week. Just take it out and spray lots of carb cleaner on it. Use a cotton ball to gently remove and dirt buildup on the sensor. Be careful not to break it. After cleaning it, my acceleration and overall performance improved that my now squeel tires when I hit the gas from a dead stop.

When my MAF sensor failed I had a CE light after accelerating onto the highway, I reset with battery and it returned after climbing a hill.

The car had no other symptoms and after the mechanic replaced it the CE light never returned.

00 Corolla CE

I wonder if yours was as bad as mine? Do you use a K&N filter? I pulled my MAF and the sensor wires actually were covered in textured grease looking muck After cleaning it the performance gains were unreal. I'm thinking this little sensor has a lot to say to your ECU

Yes, I use a K&N on a short ram. I lost 50 miles to a tank of gas until after I cleaned it and then put in some premium with injector cleaner on top of that.

I think I'm going to shoot some premium though my car tomorrow with some injector cleaner to see what else might happen I also noticed something crazy about my car after watching it for a while. I car sputters a bit when I go down steep hills and blows smoke out the back for a little while almost like its clearing itself out. And its burning a little oil. But only when I go down hills not up hills or on flat ground. Do you know of any seals or engine issues that would only become a problem going down hills?

I cleaned mine last week. I forgot to plug it in and stuttered at 3k rpms. haha.
DUH!
After the MAF was plugged in it was great!
Notice a difference in response.

***A note from the mechanic.
Use electrical contact cleaner to be safe. Carb cleaner can corrode some MAF sensor elements. I used carb cleaner on my buddy's explorer, no probs. Just use the contact cleaner to be safe.

:censored: Thanks alot for posting this info. My car was acting very shitty for a long time and after seeing this I cleaned my MAF sensor on my 02 and HOLY :censored: what an amazing difference!!! The car runs ten times better thanks!!!.

yours is probably different than the 2003 and up Corollas... ours looks different. I was cleaning it out yesterday (after 20,000 miles) and mines clean as a whistle.

which part did you clean??
the first picture or second picture??

anyways~ i do have problem with my MAF sensor for a long whiel that my Check Engine light just came on all the itme, so i have to reset it~ and it was the MAF sensor. I cleaned them couple time b4, but only on the part of 2nd picture. Today, i just clean the part in 1st picture. i will see if the check engien light still come on this time.
hopefully, i don't need to buy another MAF sensor, they cost an arm and leg..

I sprayed both with a pretty good amount.

mine are freaking hard to get out.... WD-40 to them bitches?

umm i would say no to wd40 anywhere near the MAF sensor. Why are they hard to get out, there is 2 screws and a harness to get the actual MAF sensor off. Only use Electrical Contact Cleaner on the actual sensors inside the MAF sensor though.

Hey do you know where I could buy the electronic contact cleaner?
My MAF is dirty it has oil with dust maybe because of my TRD filter which sometimes I over oil.

thats a good article but which spray did you use, got more details on the procedure??

Just get electrical contact cleaner at the autoparts store. You'll see it on the shelf right by the brake parts cleaners and stuff...

hey peeps, got a question. i need to clean my wifes maf also. w/c one is it in this pic? (hopefully it shows up here) thanks in advance!
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a168/akoykalbo/100_0634.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a168/akoykalbo/100_0633.jpg

The MAF is in the top photo in the center. I've circled it in red in this link:

http://photobucket.com/albums/v620/fishexpo101/MAF/?action=view&current=MAF.jpg

hey, thanks a lot bro. another quick question, so i take it off and spray the sensor itself right? i mean the inside of it, correct? thanks again in advance.

Yup - inside the MAF sensor. Here is another DIY guide on cleaning the MAF on an MR2 - basically the same procedure as on the Corolla.

http://spydermagazine.com/2002/March/maf_clean/maf_clean.htm

fish, thank bro. i appreciate it. im gonna clean the maf this weekend.

like he said, you should take pictures; showing this wire especially.

I've read several articles on this...including ones that say using a K&N Drop-In filter makes cleaning the MAF very important. But here's the kicker. I installed my K&N drop-in at 52 miles. Tundra now has almost 70k miles on it, and the filter has been cleaned and re-oiled once. I pulled my MAF sensor off about 56k...

And let me tell you, it was clean as a whistle.

Are you sure cleaning the MAF sensor is important for everyone? Or only for those who run alot of WOT and get blow-by?

Just curious.

Probab;y varies quite a bit - I also run a K&N, didn't notice much if any additional accumulation that others have seen. A lot probably depends on how the filter was oiled, driving conditions, how it was driven, etc.

On the Matrix - it was dirty as hell at 40K miles (OEM paper air filter). The Corolla - first 30K on OEM paper air filter - looked pretty clean, cleaned it up anyways - switched to K&N - now 130K, looks like it did at 30K.

They don't really tell you to clean the MAF - because they probably don't want you to damage it and they want to make money on replacement parts. I roll this into the maintenance catagory - if it needs it, it will get done - if it looks OK, don't mess with it.

I just bought a can of contact cleaner from Radio Shack. I forgot to check if it is a non residue one and it says nothing about it on the bottle. I called them up and he said he doesnt know either. Where did you get yours from Barn?

Contact Cleaner is always a non-residue cleaner so you safe I got mine from B&B Auto Parts in Redmond, WA.