Hey I am glad you posted that picture. I want to dig deeper so that we all learn from each other's experiences and make life better for all of us. As far as I know that wire screen in the very front is actually a "Bug Screen" to keep out larger debris. It is not the sensor portion that has a heated wire that is what you need to clean.

If you llok behind the front mesh, you will see a little aperture or opening in the center of that airway. Contained within that is the sensor. This is what needs careful cleaning.

What makes me think this? The experiences I have had in doing it. And a respone from Cosmic88 when I did a thread months ago regarding MAF Cleaning.

To remo0ve that mesh, you grasp the front plastic ring, gently pull or pry it out, the wire mesh ring will fall out, you can clean it separately. You spray into the opening in short burst, invert the MAF to allow to drain and repeat until it no longer shows the black residue coming out.

Would anyone else care to confirm or deny this?

I cleaned my front mesh two or three times before I learned that it was not what I needed to clean. Thought I would share with all of you.

Comments? Confirmation or rebuttal is requested.

 

I don't know what normal performance is for the spray, I've always used the old-school Seafoam which is just a liquid in a can.

Danny lee, you're right. That mesh is definitely not part of the sensor. Bug screen makes sense. Though I've never removed the mesh, don't remember if I sprayed through it or from the other side to get the filament. Repeated a few times, inverted it to drain, dried with a hair dryer.

 

On mine, the back side of that opening does not look like it will accept a good cleaning. I would call it a FOD screen. Anyyone else familar with FOD? We used to have to walk every foot of the landing strip and parking areas within an arms length of each other and pick up anything that may get ingested into the aircraft intakes each morning before flight ops could begin.

The front is a separate ring, you can finesse it out, slip the FOD screen out of the way, and really get upclose with the spray nozzle, ots of black flowed from mine. Probably was never cleaned, does the dealer do that as part of their "Regular Service" not that I would take it back to LR again?

Mine also had dust along the inner walls. That was why i wanted to do a better intake area than what is the stock trumpet behind the headlight. I also do not have an oring in my front tubing, anyone got a source for those? PN? Equivalent?

I am still trying to figure out what a STRFMZ or whatever that code 1316 means.

 

I also hasd the same experience as Senator Perry with the Spray Seafoam, a wasted effort I feel. It was on sale for $7.99, now I am having a self-debate with purchasing a product for OIL FLUSH prior to new filter and Rotella.

 

well cosmo was saying that it was a good thing to put some seafoam in the oil prior to changing it. he didn't say how long before but i think i remember a day earlier. maybe he would do it longer as he wanted it to mix with the oil - create a new fluid - and have time to work itself out. he also said the rotella's detergents would slowly clean everything.

as I'm getting to the MAF im interested in that discussion. but i never heard about seafoam in the MAF. I have an off the shelf MAF cleaner from PEP boys I think but can't remember now if i bought it or not.

 

SLANG: NO SEAFOAM IN THE MAF brotha. ONLY the MAF SPRAY. and make sure it is room temp, like do not crank and then spray. If you run motor wait at least half hour, I did an hour. I used the CRC MAF Spray with a little tube that came with it. But like I was emphasizing above, the front mesh is not the sensor. It took me a few times to figure that out, so learn from my follies. Few I Hope become folly level. Remove from ring and mesh screen. Foreign Object Damage Preventer, not sensor. Look deep into the inlet and you will see the element. I actually have one of those old work bench mounted magnifying circular lamps like you saw in factories many moons ago. It is amazing the detail you get with the lighted magnification.

Spray that little opening but not too aggressively, it is a tiny heated element that somehow senses the properties of the incoming air. Not sure exactly what (volume, density, supernatural aura or whatever it senses) and provides a variable input to the WIZARD BOX, also known as the ECU.

This apparently is the primary input to determine fuel injection variables or omething to that effect. I would sure like a better understanding of the inter relationships of the inputs to that WIZARD BOX so we can quit attempting the use of these various MAJIC JUICE POTIONS and SNAKEOILS that so many marketeers offer to swindle us poor suckers.

When they work we love them, when they don't we resort to odd things.
"When In Danger Or In Doubt
Run in Circles, Scream and Shout"

My Chicano friend Miguel said his Grandfather taught him that and "Just pick up a big rock, and throw it at their heads". Said if you did that, every thing would work out. Anyway I digress.

The main reason I responded was to say, maybe look at getting everything that you have off like the valve covers and intake thoroughly degreased.

Have you ever seen one of the commercial type degreasers that recirculates a fluid thru a little nozzle and has a soaking bin with a dip basket. You mechanics and guys that have been around know what I am referring to. Basically a Solvent Wash Station. Maybe there is a shop that would clean them up like new while you have them off.

I need to do a planned maint to my cooling system before too long as a prcautionary thing.

Glad to see you jumped in and took charge of yours, I am in a similar mode with mine these days.

 

see that's how you confuse things.....sounds kinda like da Goat used Seafoam from his just before post. i wasn't gonna go there anyway but thanks for the extra warning....cuz it could happen.

I'm gonna follow your lead to a T like I did with the plugs and wires. i'm waiting on the plugs from AB ($2 ea. baby), gonna do my MAF and throttle body before they get here and by next weekend will have that all done, including wires. then we'll see where we're at. i'm jonesin' on the body work as I look so ghetto with no grill or bumpers...but I'll get to that. also been working on the D2 but you're not following those posts. i did the same plug/wire set up there too. also an inline t-stat mod and cooling system redo like you're talking about.

and i'm sure it's supernatural aura. no doubt. brotha.

 

As far as cleaning the MAF, use only MAF cleaner and clean it once a year.
Do it with it cold, like after sitting all night and then let it dry before plugging it back in, MAF cleaner dries pretty quickly.
So a guy could do something like this, drain the motor oil, clean the MAF, finish oil change and greasing.
MAF is dry by time you are all done with your oil change.

 

You city kids I tell you whhat...I grew up in farm country, working on a farm and living in the country we fixed everything ourselves.

 

I wish I had posted a video of the process. I did clean as you described, but only took a picture of it drying as an afterthought. :-/ Didn't mean to mislead anyone.

I have read in other forums about people running the seafoam spray through a MAF resulting in a total MAF loss in worst cases and extreme cleaning efforts in others. The spray does have notes on the side to warn people, but the can is difficult to read and the instructors are oddly worded.