yeldogt

Yes ... lesson learned.


You should leave the MAF alone -- people speak of cleaning them .... but not one mechanic I have ever talked to had a cleaning fix a MAF.

They sell the cleaner .... but I don't think it does anything .. except make them look pretty.


One mechanic told me they can always tell when a car come in needing a MAF because the owner just cleaned it .................. thinking it would fix it ....... this normally comes happens just after the new gas cap for the CEL

rlx101

hold on, if ECU is reset - am i supposed to drive it for a little for the ECU to "re-learn" the settings with the clean sensor/ new filter?? I can sort of see how ECU could get all confused with the new air filter and cleaner sensor..

rlx101

here is what i found about resetting ECU, so the re-learning process can happen over time and not right away?

rlx101

ok, i gave up after spending a few hours looking for whats causing this (even did the DIY cigar smoke test lol looking for a vacuum leak, did not find anything. haha ) and took it to the mechanic. He cleaned the fuel injectors and the idle is back up to normal !?!? this is very strange, i'll see how it behaves over next few days, kicking myself for not trying adding the fuel injector cleaner into the tank just to cross that one out. Now need to return those sensors.. live and learn.

EEngineer

hey all in all as long as you get your car up and running perfectly, it's all good. the lessons learned in the process doesn't hurt either

rlx101

they also cleaned the throttle body, this is a missing piece of this puzzle i believe. perhaps when i was servicing MAF/air filter i somehow bumped or did something to the throttle body?! Cleaning took care of it and now everything seems to be ok. Rpms are at 650. MAF is clean. CRP is ok to use on a MAF after all.

Whhhew this was a pain in the neck i guess i should have gone upstream from the MAF when troubleshooting this.

MrShim78

just read this saga glad to know things are ok for you now...so you are saying it was -not- the maf sensor after all?

Steelfan

Not on my Lexus, but on my Corolla, cleaning the MAF fixed my stalling/rough idle problem. It was coated pretty heavily with oil and needed cleaned badly. The Corolla was pushing 180k on the odo at the time. That Corolla burned a qt every 750 to 1000 miles but as long as you "fed" it, it kept on going.

MrShim78

HI there... so after all that, was it worth it? did cleaning the MAF yield any significant benefits in terms of gas mileage,etc? i bought the crc cleaner for my 97 es300 but havent yet gone and tried anything - a bit hesitant to actually since the car runs ok...
not sure what i'd want to do yet so want to weigh the benefits...

rlx101

not that i noticed. i'd say if its time to replace the sensors - air/fuel and oxygen - do those. I think air/fuel sensor not feeding proper data has more effect on gas mileage than anything else, i.e. if you are running rich mix you are wasting gas unnecessarily. A/F sensors are rated for 150kmiles so if you are on your original sensors..

for gas mileage makes sure easy things are up to spec - air filter, tire pressure etc. there was a thread here somewhere on usual supsects for poor mpg's.

now im off to change the starter, getting cold here, wish me luck! lol

MrShim78

good luck! so i have shelved my MAF idea then. my car is closing in on 150k miles so then the sensors maybe where the money is spent!

rlx101

thanks. finished it in 2 hrs yesterday, so far so good. now need to return the core to the store and order a/f sensor from amazon.

aydogdu197

This is a very old post so not sure if someone will answer it. I have a 2004 lexus ES330 and I cleaned the maf sensor with CRC maf cleaner. After that my engine light came on. The following day the engine light went off and battery light came on.I took the battery to Autozone and they charged and measured it and told me that I needed a battery. I got a new battery installed it but the battery light is still there. Moreover, I went shopping today and on my way back home, all dashboard lights came on, ABS, airbag, brake, maintenance required lights and car stalled continuously. Luckily I was very close to home and I turned on my flash lights, slowly drove and able to park in front of my apartment.
Obviously I made the **** on a perfectly running car. I wish I had never touched that sensor. I believe this is related to maf sensor. As rlx101 mentioned I realized later that maf sensor cleaner is not suitable for most lexus cars. Something is happening to the brain of the car and it is going crazy.
I ordered a new maf sensor from ebay and it will arrive 3 days later. I wanted to buy from Autozone but there is a huge price difference between ebay and parts shops.
As mentioned some guys recommend to clean the throttle body. Some recommend to clean maf sensor again.
Any suggestions? Do you think battery light might be related to maf sensor? Should I clean again it again or wait for the new maf sensor?


Thanks.

turtlepeas

Similar thing happened to me recently. I have a 98 es300. going from memory reading around I remember that most/some Lexus models don't need or require cleaning of the MAF, especially if it's a 'karmon vortex'? MAF (whatever that is, or if I'm even spelling it right). I poked around the best I could and could neither confirm or deny what type of MAF sensor I have; but it looks like a a small black jet turbine (looks very different from most maf sensors). I had an extra one on hand cheap from the salvage yard so I decided to clean the one in the car with maf sensor cleaner to see what happened and immediately after reinstalling it there were problems. Something was seriously wrong. I swap the one that I'd just cleaned with the spare and I was back to normal.
I still never figured out whether my car's maf sensor is one of the ones that absolutely does not require cleaning but it didn't seem to like it, and for such an expensive part retail I think I'll be leaving it alone from now on.

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

This sounds more like the ECM is having a problem. Sometimes the capacitors go bad after a while. Could be a whole bunch of possibilities though.
If you had anything ON your MAF sensor, then cleaning it will fix that. Spray it good, let it sit for 10 secs, then spray air in there and dry it out.