Cleaning the MAF Sensor Tutorial with Pictures.

[chadhgraves]

I've seen some other posts with pictures on how to clean the MAF sensor and it gave me the confidence to do this myself. I'm a little gun shy when it come to messing around with the engine unless I have a good guide to follow so I don't end up causing a major malfunction. I know this has been covered and well documented on previous posts, but i'm bored. This seemed easy enough to do, and you know what, it was!It took me about 20 minutes from start to finish, but that was because I was meticulous and messing around with other things while the sensor was drying out. Now, I could do it in probably 10 mins. I've never cleaned the MAF sensor myself before today and I don't know if my mechanic ever did in the past. It will be something I check a couple times a year now. The bottle of MAF sensor cleaner states that it increases horsepower, improves air/fuel ratio, stops rough idling, helps acceleration, and improves MPG. For $7 at AutoZone, it sounded good to me. So here we go. Step 1. Pop the hood and disconnect the negative cable from the battery. Step 2. Locate the MAF sensor. Step 3. Unplug the connector attached to the top of the sensor by pushing down on the tab and pull. Unscrew the two screws on top holding it in. Step 4. If you're worried about dropping a screw due to butterfingers, then just place a shop towel around the casing to catch it from falling down into the engine. Next, carefully pull straight up to remove the sensor. Sweet baby Jesus, my sensor was filthy. No wonder my engine was idling rough when I came to a complete stop. These two wires inside are the actual air flow sensors. The dirty sensor above is the temperature sensor if I understand correctly. You'll want to clean both. Step 5. I put on a glove and stepped outside to spray mine down. The instructions said to spray the sensor with 10-15 short bursts of cleaner. BE CAREFUL when using the straw on the spray. The sensors look like it wouldn't take much to damage them so spray from a sensible distance. Spray the electrical connector and plug as well. Set it down on some paper to let it completely dry out before you put it back in. Mine was night and day after cleaning it. Step 6. Once it's completely dry, place it back in the engine the way you took it out. Screw the screws back on and plug it back in. The plug will click when it's back on there securely. Reconnect the negative cable on your battery and take it for a drive. A thunderstorm was rolling into town, so I only drove it around the block a couple of times. I've read on some posts it takes a little time for the computer to reset and calibrate itself after cleaning the sensor. I definitely noticed a difference on just a few trips around the block. Seemed to shift smoother, felt like it had more power, when before it felt sluggish, and the idling was noticeably improved. It felt like when you're sick and all stopped up and you shoot some nasal spray up your nose. It's like it opened up the engine's nostrils. I'll update this post when I take it out on the highway and drive it around some more. Like I said, for $7 I couldn't be happier at the improvement of the car's performance. Easy, cheap way to get your Vibe running in tip top shape. Go ahead, try it for yourself!

[chadhgraves]

Update: Wow! I'll admit that I had no idea what the hell a MAF sensor was before I started looking around on the genvibe forums, but I sure as hell know now. I just took it out on the highway, after I cleaned it earlier today, and it's a very noticeable and great improvement. Smooth shifting, acceleration is smoother, punching down on the pedal throws me back on the seat, rough idling has decreased greatly when stopped, and an overall engine power increase. Even accelerating from a cruising speed of 60 makes it get up and go. I remember last summer trying to overtake a car on a two lane highway and there was a delay from punching the gas pedal to the floor and even then, it took too long to get my momentum up to pass quickly. I imagine the dirty MAF sensor played a role in that.

[Brandort3]

I love it! I've been wanting to put a maf sensor on my '03 GT as well. Where did you get it at and how much did it cost?

[chadhgraves]

If you're asking if I put an upgraded one on it or modified it somehow, I didn't. It's just the factory one that has been on there since I bought it. All I did was clean the sensor with that MAF spray. But if that's not what you're asking then your car should have one on it already or else it shouldn't run. I'm not an engine guru, but I'm pretty sure it's built in as part of the engine. Just look at the pictures above and you can locate it on your Vibe. Should be in the same spot. It's to the right of your engine at the end of that hose that goes into that smaller box. Sorry about the lack of proper terms, I'm still trying to learn a lot of this stuff myself. The cleaner is available at AutoZone for like $7. Looks exactly like that bottle I posted. Just follow those steps and you should be good. Just be careful you don't drop it or anything like that. Looks like it could break the sensor if you dropped it. It's a really easy job for such a noticable improvement in performance. Hit me up if you have any questions. There's a lot smart engine guys on this forum so they could help you out too.

[jkm311]

As an author of one of the other tutorials, yours was worth just seeing the shot of your dirty MAF! I have not seen someone's that bad on here. Ever. Good work and enjoy the performance.

[chadhgraves]

Haha, I'm usually shy showing my dirty MAF to just anyone. I had the same reaction, jkm311. I was like wow, that is filthy. I actually had your guide pulled up on my phone to make sure I was doing it right. When I pulled out my sensor and compared it to the photo of your dirty one, I was like oh sh**, this is not good. Here it is if anyone else wants to see jkm311's guide.http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=36907

[jkm311]

Where do you usually drive in Tulsa? It looks like your MAF has copper colored dust on it. I know filters can't catch everything, but whatever yours is covered with made it through. Did you buy your Vibe used? Maybe the former owner drove without the filter on at some point?Either way, thanks for this. It details everything more. Looking back on my write-up, I made a leap in thinking that everybody knew where the airbox was, without documenting in photos. Live and learn.

[chadhgraves]

It's an '03 and I bought it from a dealership back in December '04. It had one previous owner. I've never cleaned it before, let alone, even knew where it was and what it did. My mechanic may of cleaned it at one time but I'm not sure. The copper color dust is called "red dirt" in Oklahoma. I lived in Stillwater for 5 years when I went to college at Oklahoma State and used to go back road driving in the Vibe. There's tons of "red dirt" all over Oklahoma and it's nearly impossible to get it off your clothes. I also took it to the Grand Canyon but I don't think that would of made it dirty. It's probably just years of build up that finally started to affect my performance. I just wish I would of cleaned it a long time ago, but now I know. Here's a photo of a typical country road in Stillwater.