MY 1992 ES300 has an engine code 31 ( low airflow meter voltage) that
comes on once in awhile, the engine runs sluggish when its on but then it goes away.

Has anybody seen this?

Where do you start to troubleshoot?

Thanks!

 

The Airflow meter on these cars is very basic, there is spring loaded vane that responds to airflow. A potentiometer gives a 0 to 5 volt signal to indicate airflow. The first step is to inspect the harness and connector for the airflow meter. Chances are there is some physical damage.

 

If the connector or harness is damaged, can i get these parts and replace it myself.

Thanks George!

 

ok here's the deal:

you or mechanic may ahve disconnected it and turned the key on only to realize he left it unpluged, but the computer doesn't get rid of the code.

now you say code comes on once in a while. that's not possible. you meant check engine light I think. if that's the case, and the only code you see is this, there are some other things to investigate like the following in my next paragraph.

the little door may have some junk on it and the rest of the insides. clean it out really good with some carb cleaner product.

check the door operation.

the sluggish thing happens when cold start only you first start accelerating the car , that's a specific thing that has been discuessed much on CL and TN -- cleaning it fixed for me. there's also several ways to adj the thing to compensate for age which I did too but which I found were not the causes.

the connector to the maf has a metal clip. i broke mine. luckily for me it hasn't been an issue. on yours if it broke off, the connector might be staying on enough.

george_jet is otherwise right on in the general sense, but there's a lot of MAF issue on the 3vz-fe , and I hope I helped with it. do what I said ANYWAY since if its not it will be the problem, and what george jet is saying you should do too.

 

I will take it apart today and clean it , hope it works.

Thanks!