Today I was an idiot. My LS400 has had an issue recently where it will hesitate a bit from a stop, and while cruising at maybe 10-15% throttle it would buck a little bit. I already replaced the TPS and adjusted it, so I suspected maybe it was the MAF. I didn't realize these cars used a rare karman vortex maf, and I cleaned the thing with CRC MAF cleaner....bad move. It made my problem much worse. I realize now that I probably destroyed my sensor after using the CRC cleaner. So I have been on the hunt for a new MAF all day today, and have found that a used OEM sensor is just about my only option. Obviously the cheap chinese replicas likely won't work. I am baffled that there isn't much aftermarket support with these sensors, and that OEM is pretty much the only option. So, I was curious...is there any way to get rid of this vortex sensor entirely and convert to a typical hot wire maf? Does anyone have experience with this? Is it even possible while keeping the stock ECU? I'd like to do a standalone ecu one day, but that's a whole lot of work and probably isn't possible without swapping in a manual transmission.

 

Sorry to hear that, there should have been a warning sticker on these sensors not to clean them. I know mine the 2000 model you can clean. Support is limited for sure. Personally I would not mess any kind of conversion attempts unless you are highly adept with tuning etc. The issue for me I see is damaging the engine or components if you get it wrong, too rich too lean etc. Like you said the ecu issue and the frequency signals are fundamentally different. Yes I am not sure about modernization and translators effectively and accurately (the most important that its accurate), but maybe somebody ese does.