So, I've been away for a couple of weeks, I come home jump in the car and drive off, almost right away I'm thinking the cars not going right.. Its just like it was on the way to cornwall, put your foot down but no real go, in fact it goes better at 0.5bar than at 1 bar of boost. As the boost comes up you get lots of wooshing noise but less power.. I try flooring it, it cuts out. Ok, so maybe I've got a boost leak but how? From being parked up for 2 weeks??
I stop and restart a couple of times but its still the same, all whoosh and no go.
So I pop the bonnet and resisting the temptation to reset the ecu again I just pull the MAF connector off look at it plug it back in, get back in the car, restart and its going fine again, I'm pretty sure if I now reset the ECU it will be back on form but what is exactly happening in this scenario???
The connector is clean (done with Caig De-Oxit) There is no visible corrosion.
All I can think is that somehow there's enough corrosion build up or galvanic action from the current passing through the MAF element or from the cleaning current at start up to cause a shift in the overall resistance of the MAF which gradually changes metering of the air mass and therefore the fuel mix. The Lamda helps the ECU to adapt to this for a while but eventually it gets too far adrift and goes off the edge of the mapping, the mixture goes completely wrong the turbo still blows but the car makes no power, it feels like it has a boost leak. Disturbing the connector is enough to remove the oxide or at least break through the film and normal operation is resumed untill it happens again a few weeks (or days) later.
My next course of action will be to replace the MAF connector and crimp on new pins, I'm hoping the new plug comes with better pins (they're actually sockets, the pins are in the MAF) The old ones don't put much pressure on the pin so I'm thinking its pretty easy to get a bad connection. If not I'll find some proper AMP crimps that fit. I have 1/4 and 3/16 ones already.
I wonder if this is the thing that sorts the car out when you wash the MAF too, its actually the unplugging and replugging of th3e MAF that sorts it out. I'm also reminded of how well the car goes after I changed the air filter and how I had to unplug the MAF to get to the filter.. Hmmm...
So what do you think chaps? Am I on to something here?
If you think I am or if you'd like to join in an experiment, I'd like you to go for a drive, stop, switch off, unplug the MAF, push-pull the plug on and off a few times, go for another drive see if its better, then reset the ECU (fuses out for 5 mins) go for another blast and post your results here.
Lets see if anyone else has a funny MAF connector
I stop and restart a couple of times but its still the same, all whoosh and no go.
So I pop the bonnet and resisting the temptation to reset the ecu again I just pull the MAF connector off look at it plug it back in, get back in the car, restart and its going fine again, I'm pretty sure if I now reset the ECU it will be back on form but what is exactly happening in this scenario???
The connector is clean (done with Caig De-Oxit) There is no visible corrosion.
All I can think is that somehow there's enough corrosion build up or galvanic action from the current passing through the MAF element or from the cleaning current at start up to cause a shift in the overall resistance of the MAF which gradually changes metering of the air mass and therefore the fuel mix. The Lamda helps the ECU to adapt to this for a while but eventually it gets too far adrift and goes off the edge of the mapping, the mixture goes completely wrong the turbo still blows but the car makes no power, it feels like it has a boost leak. Disturbing the connector is enough to remove the oxide or at least break through the film and normal operation is resumed untill it happens again a few weeks (or days) later.
My next course of action will be to replace the MAF connector and crimp on new pins, I'm hoping the new plug comes with better pins (they're actually sockets, the pins are in the MAF) The old ones don't put much pressure on the pin so I'm thinking its pretty easy to get a bad connection. If not I'll find some proper AMP crimps that fit. I have 1/4 and 3/16 ones already.
I wonder if this is the thing that sorts the car out when you wash the MAF too, its actually the unplugging and replugging of th3e MAF that sorts it out. I'm also reminded of how well the car goes after I changed the air filter and how I had to unplug the MAF to get to the filter.. Hmmm...
So what do you think chaps? Am I on to something here?
If you think I am or if you'd like to join in an experiment, I'd like you to go for a drive, stop, switch off, unplug the MAF, push-pull the plug on and off a few times, go for another drive see if its better, then reset the ECU (fuses out for 5 mins) go for another blast and post your results here.
Lets see if anyone else has a funny MAF connector
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