Cleaned MAF - what a difference to MPG!

[JamesHarrold]

Just thought I would mentioned that I cleaned my MAF for the first time last week. It is only 18 months old, but had some IPA so I gave it a good soaking.
Re-fitted and thought nothing more about it.
Went for a drive to the north norfolk coast at the weekend (about a 50 mile round trip on "country" roads) and noticed such a difference in fuel economy.
Recently I had been seeing about 23-24 mpg with careful driving, but now I am getting 28.5mpg according to the display.....

Changed my DV for a new bosch 710 as well so could be a combination of both, but what a difference.

James

[ryster]

whats IPA ? isn't that bitter

[avants2turbo]

lol yeah, soaked it in a can of pale ale, i do this to my liver frequently, not sure ive seen the same increase in mpg though...

[avants2turbo]

whats IPA ? isn't that bitter

IPA - iso proply alcohol (think the spellings right)

You can buy it in maplin, its used for cleaning eletrical components

[UUUdirs2newcastle]

So if I spray my MAF in IPA i may go to the BP station less often? Do you just spray it on or soak it for 30 mins in a jar?

[P.G.]

Last year I had problem with turbo boost. ECU detected that boost is too high and runned it in safe mode (0.5bar) Than I bought IPA, cleaned MAF and there was no errors and car was running well

[s2driveruk]

can someone explain why this works when the maf has a high power voltage sent across the wire to instantly burn off deposits etc...am confused???

[Error404]

look at the crap you get built up on exhaust valves, bet they get hotter than the MAF wire!

[s2driveruk]

not sure....i thought it was 1000 deg C for a few seconds

[Error404]

wow.. maybe it does then! 1000deg is quote a bit

[JamesHarrold]

Yep...You've got me on that one.
The mesh was fairly dirty so can only assume that the wires were a little unhappy also, although looking at them beforehand they looked fine.

[90/90qs]

I always thought the MAF sensor was just a piezo crystal, which generates a charge when it gets bent (via air current in this case). If that's true there would be on the order of a few millivolts at the most passing through it though...
Anyone know?

[avants2turbo]

I always thought the MAF sensor was just a piezo crystal, which generates a charge when it gets bent (via air current in this case). If that's true there would be on the order of a few millivolts at the most passing through it though...
Anyone know?

The MAF on the s2 is a platinium hot wire type, and it heats up to i think its more like 1500 celcius for a second when the motor is turned off

[S2central.net]

I've always been a bit skeptical of the IPA MAF bath... But others swear by it...

Its possible that on some cars the burnoff sequence has failed (easy to test this with the MAF disconnected from airbox - you should see the MAF wire glow red for about a second and you might even hear the relay click inside the ECU).

The other reason why I think the MAF bath is sometimes lauded as the great saviour is that the multipin connector on the MAF is the main fault - with poor/dirty contacts that cause a kak signal into the ECU. I know a few people have had 'miracle cures' to various ills just be cleaning or reseating the MAF connector.

[stiglet]

Sorry to be all "non-S2" but does the 7A have this red-hot feature? Might be worth giving mine a bath if not...