How do you know if your MAF sensor is bad?

Genre21

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Mar 22, 2001, 1:17:22 AM3/22/01

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My car is idling very low (300rpm...I'm not driving it now because of it) but
it drove fine off idle when I brought it home after it started doing this. So
it seems the only problem is the idle....could this be a symptom of the MAF
sensor?

Dennis Scott

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Mar 22, 2001, 10:17:22 AM3/22/01

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Tap on it while it is idling. If it changes or improves, it's a bad MAF. You
really need a scanner to diagnose problems.

--

"Genre21" <gen...@aol.com> wrote in message
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98Camaro

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Mar 22, 2001, 11:00:53 AM3/22/01

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You may want to check/clean(carb cleaner) your Idle Air Control valve (IAC)
(on trottle body) as well. Though tell tail symptoms of the IAC are
fluctating idle. Try cleaning it anyway, it's worth a try being that it is
basically free and a diagnostic scan or MAF sensor is expensive. And I
believe that you would have other problems with a bad MAF, since it is a key
to air/fuel mixture (causing to run rich or lean - both off which will spit
an error), and the ECM can spit out many MAF sensor errors as well.

"Dennis Scott" <dsc...@kc.rr.com> wrote in message
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GLK9MM

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Mar 22, 2001, 4:59:38 PM3/22/01

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I'll tell you what I experienced when my MAF went bad.

I didn't have any trouble at idle or casual acceleration. It's when I'd
stand on the accelerator (let's face it, what fun is a V-8 or higher if
there's no power) and the power would just plummet. This was on an
automatic BTW. When I'd mash the pedal, you'd hear the engine rev and it'd
hold pretty much around 4500RPM - well BELOW redline - and the torque
converter wouldn't kick it up/down a gear until I let off the gas which is
kinda' the opposite desired effect. It's almost as if the engine were being
flooded; which, if you think about it is exactly what was happening. The
MAF was screwed and wasn't mixing enough air.

Martin

The Chief

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Mar 22, 2001, 1:43:25 PM3/22/01

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"Genre21" <gen...@aol.com> wrote in message
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Bigjfig

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Mar 22, 2001, 11:49:46 PM3/22/01

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>Subject: Re: How do you know if your MAF sensor is bad?
>From: "Dennis Scott" dsc...@kc.rr.com
>Date: 3/22/01 10:17 AM Eastern Standard Time
>Message-id: <6Iou6.43379$cb.19...@typhoon.kc.rr.com>

Dennis is right on the money with his idea.....

Now, barring that, if we are talking about an OBDI car, get a hold of a scanner
or a code reader and see what if any codes show up when you scan it.

On GMs old enough, you can jump out the A&B terminals on the diagnostic
connector and count the check engine light flashes.

Good luck.
Joe--ASE Certified Parts Specialist
'80 Carousel Red Turbo, 26k original-->http://www.0rdernet.com/Mean_Pont
'79 10th Ann. 400/4 speed, 57k original-->http://home.earthlink.net/~bryanan
'84 Olds Delta 88, 307 "Rocket" (lol), 137k and still going....

John Craker

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Mar 23, 2001, 11:57:35 AM3/23/01

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In article <20010322234946...@ng-mi1.aol.com>, big...@aol.com (Bigjfig) wrote:
>Now, barring that, if we are talking about an OBDI car, get a hold of a scanner
>or a code reader and see what if any codes show up when you scan it.
>
>On GMs old enough, you can jump out the A&B terminals on the diagnostic
>connector and count the check engine light flashes.

FWIW - that'd be '93 and down.