Stalling, rev limitation, fluttering... (KA24DE) MAFS horror stories.

[skrip]

About a year ago, not long after I bought my 95 240sx SE (nearly stock other than 1.5" Tein springs) I was plagued by this occasional problem of my revs getting restricted at 2500 rpm. It was a mystery. I would step on it, hear that the motor is getting fuel but the rpms would stop at 2500 no matter how hard I pressed, it actually made matters worse. I had to just "idle along" for a minute or two until it returned to normal. Worst case scenario, it would flutter and stall.

At the time I suspected the transmission, which was obviously an incorrect assumption. Then I thought it was the fuel filter, which I changed and saw no improvement. Then I thought that maybe more airflow would improve the matter, so I decided to put a cone filter. Louder it got, but the problem remained. I also thought it was the fuel pump but considering it ran VERY well most of the time, I scratched that. Then I noticed that tapping on the MAF sensor and moving the connector/cable going to it caused variation in the RPMs. I cleaned it with an electronic cleaner and it seems to have improved it for some time. The 2500 limiter disappeared. Yet, now, when I idle at the red light, it seems to reduce the rpm's sometimes and it even dies, unless I feed it more fuel. So today, I repeated the cleaning process and also decided to unscrew the four screws that the maf connector had. With some effort, I removed the connector and it seems to be a solder weld that came appart. Possibly me removing that connector made the welds come appart, but I also had a similar problem with a loose contact in the power window amp. So then I bent the interior pins down a little, sanded both sides a little, causing for a better contact... and today, after 60 miles of heavy city traffic, including plenty of lights, it did not stall nor flutter. Ideally, I would want to resolder those contacts, but it seems that without cutting the top of the MAF, there is no way to get to those contacts. I suppose this will have to do for now.

Anyone else had similar experiences with the MAF sensor acting up? Any advice/tips?

//Andrey

[onosqv]

yup, it's easier to just get a new MAF sensor

[skrip]

Naturally, that's the simplest and most expensive way around it. If I'm not mistaken, the local dealer wanted $400-500 for it. Considering I paid about 3 grand for it, that's a whole lot of money to spend on just one sensor. Sometimes I just want to go back to the good 'ole carbeurator days. No ecu's, no sensors, no problems.

[onosqv]

carbs rule!

I was thinking the MAFs you can get from people parting out cars, ebay etc. Those typically run $20-30 max...

[skrip]

good point. i actually ended up doing that... although perhaps mine will still be OK for some time. i think i'm gonna cut it open and solder those contacts once my spare comes in, just for the heck of it, to test my hypothesis
Modified by skrip at 10:37 AM 12/22/2006