Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior CleaNiNg MAF?

My car has been having trouble ildling and i checked my MAF and its prety dirty, so i went and bought this stuff, the guy at Advanced Auto Parts said it would work...is this trusthworthy because i dont want to mess up my MAF?

That stuff is for cleaning electrical contacts. It may or may not actually clean your MAFS.

A replacement MAFS is $240. Go buy some throttle body cleaner for about $3 and know for sure you're doing it right. You can use the electronic cleaner to clean the plug for the MAFS though.

That stuff should work, but the only other stuff you should use is non-chlorinated brake cleaner. It won't leave any residue once it dries, and will get rid of every last piece of dirt. Some carb and throttle body cleaners say right on the can that they will destroy airflow sensors, so make sure you read the can if you want to buy that kind of cleaner.

hmmm that shouldnt ruin it. but i used just alcohol to clean mines and it came out fine. But when i reset the ECU, my engine bogs for a while. After a few minutes of driving, its goes away. is that normal?

after you reset your ECU, start your engine and leave it running for bout 5 minutes or so to adjust itself before driving it. that's what i do

listen to blue. Blue know's his sh*t. Use brake cleaner that says no residue. Worked great for me.

Be careful with the brake cleaner, it can dissolve the plastic and might melt the contact points.

Look for Valvoline Carb and Choke cleaner, it says on the can SAFE for mafs, and it's not as caustic as brake cleaner.

Brake cleaner will take the paint off metal pieces on your car, do you really want to spray that into a tiny electrical instrument?

What you have there will also work, but, not as well.

^^ Valvoline is what I used. Works great. 3 bucks.

Is your car stock, or do you have a CAI. If you have a CAI, it's the ECU learning the new airflow pattern.
Never had any problems with any non-chlorinated brake cleaners. I just spray inside the MAFS, using the force of the cleaner to push out any dirt,let it soak for a few minutes, then shake out any excess and reinstall. Been doing this for maybe 30K with no MAFS related problems.
Good thing the MAFS isn't painted. The plastic in the engine bay is made to handle any kind of fluid that may be spilled on it, including brake fluid which is also known to eat paint.

I was just about to take my Celica for a shop stop, so I thought I'd give this a try first:

PYROIL Carb & Choke Cleaner is what I used.
It fixed what I expected it too!

My rough idles and jerky throttle response is gone, YAY!

~The MAFS was kind of a bitch to get off the intake pipe(Injen), granted I am a NOOB at this. All went well though

Either way, just spray some brake cleaner on a Q-Tip and then go at it.

Most brake cleaner sprays out really hard and fast, so it might get everywhere.

Thing is, you need to clean more than just the visible sensors. There's a path that the air takes through the top of the MAFS. It starts at the front, goes through those two small wires inside the front half of the main shaft, then comes out of the back end of the shaft, and is pulled along by the air going through the hole in the bottom of the MAFS. If there's any dirt or oil inside the main shaft (especially the top), it will cause restriction and slow the air down, throwing off MAFS readings (bogging, bad idle, etc.). It's necessary to use a liquid to remove the dirt and oil, since a Q-tip won't fit in there. The pressure of a spray also helps dislodge any tough dirt.

Do you have to reset the ECU? Cause I didn't, but everything seems better than it was.

You don't have to, but it's advisable because

A. Your disconnecting an electrical part (personally, I don't leave the battery plugged for anything that might involve electricity)

B. Your ECU will begin adjusting immediately from scratch, instead of slowly clearing out over the course of a few days.

Alright, I'll do it. Thanks

One more thing...

In the installation thread, it says to take out the fuse for 1 second for it to successfully reset the ECU. Is that true? Or does it matter how long the fuse is pulled out for?

Thanks for the info ...but i got one more question...when you clean the thing the MAF thing is on do you just spray the cleaner straight from the bottle and sorta soak it, or how do you clean it??????

BUMP...^anyone???

You spray it around and inside the MAFS as much as possible, trying to push out dirt with the spray.

It should, since it immediately loses power. You could always leave it out longer to be sure...

Aight Blue_Bomber, thanks

Sweet, so obviously the time doesn't matter Thanks.

I dont understand the article about cleanin the MAF.

It shows something like the temp. probe and says to clean that...is that all you do, spray that carb choke cleaner on there?

The article is wrong. You need to clean more than the temp sensor (part on the side). You need to spray up into the center of the MAFS to get to the real airflow sensors (thin little spring shaped wires), and to clean out the path that the air takes through the MAFS.

^ did it yesterday afternoon and finally put everything back together and turned my car on and i was amazed ..it was idiling soooooo smooth and steady