I posted this by accident on the 240 forum somehow so I am reposting it here. I was changing the oil in my mom's 91' Q45 the other day and I removed the air cleaner assembly along with the plumbing to the throttle body to gain better access to the oil filter. As I took the plumbing off I looked inside to see what condition the MAF was in and I had seen a red colored oil coating the sensor which I am pretty sure came from the K&N air filter that the previous owner had installed. Now since I have drivin the car I have noticed that the car tends to stumble at times on the highway and I have to gun it to stop the studdering. I wonder if this is the cause. Anyway, can I use electrical contact cleaner to clean the sensor or will that ruin it? I read somewhere that you can but I want to know if someone here has done it with good results.Thanks,MattJacksonville, FL

I don't have an answer to your question, but I can tell you that the oil used to clean the K&N air filter is indeed red in color.

That is likely the cause. Folks have used electrical parts cleaner and non-chlorinated brake cleaner (sprayed carefully) to remove gunk from the MAF. In a worst-case scenario, the MAF will need to be replaced.

Its undecided if the MAF failure rate can be compared to the K/N... One might think so at least..

Like JEsda said get some brake parts cleaner or electrical parts cleaner and spray it on there.....

elwesso wrote:Its undecided if the MAF failure rate can be compared to the K/N... One might think so at least.....

If you read the previous posts, I think you will find 80% of the MAF failures were using K&N, proabably the ohter 20% were running badly clogged filters.

Another way to look at it, only about 2 members who run K&N for over 20K have not had a MAF failure.

Then again, you could read the posts by Q45tech. He regrets ever having used one and never will again.

I am convinced.

One always accesses the oil filter from below on all VH engines.

I agree,the oiled filters contribute to the maf problems. at 161,000 miles,my maf has never been cleaned,and runs and idles as new.throttle body and butterfly cleaned once at 115,000 miles,and tech was surprised at how little dirt there was. on my old 300zx turbo i ran a k/n panel filter and had dirty throttle/maf issues.

Whats a good source for new one?

My car runs great when it's cold but as it heats up, it begins to hesitate and I"m leaning towards the MAF sensor. It ain't cheap, I'll tell ya that...

maxnix wrote:If you read the previous posts, I think you will find 80% of the MAF failures were using K&N, proabably the ohter 20% were running badly clogged filters.

Another way to look at it, only about 2 members who run K&N for over 20K have not had a MAF failure.

Then again, you could read the posts by Q45tech. He regrets ever having used one and never will again.

I am convinced.

One always accesses the oil filter from below on all VH engines.

150K w/ a properly oiled K & N NO PRROBLEMS. The problem prob occurs when people over oil their filter.

Thanks for all the info. I'll get some contact cleaner and try that when I am off again. As for the oil filter, I take the aircleaner assembly out so that I can gain better access to it with the wrench to loosen it but I still have to take it out from the bottom. I feed it down as far as I can from the top and then reach underneath to take it out and vise-versa.

MattJacksonville, FL