MAF question and no answer, anyone got a BMW with a MAF?

Isn't there a BMW forum somewhere where you'd get owners ready to do this, and share the knowledge?

There is a very good E39 group on Yahoo Groups. US based, but some very knowledgeable people read it. Being US based the majority of the cars are V8s - unlike in the UK. Although I'm not sure if the 535 was sold in the US - seems to be mainly 540s and M5s.

Dave Plowman (News) used his keyboard to write :

I'm just trying to avoid joining yet another forum 8-o

apparently the 2032 version also works ok. here is a pattern one for only 44.50:

Thanks anyway, but the pattern parts and fakes are well known to be bad news. That particular one suggests it matches the 029 and 032. The difference in fuel consumption between the two is 4%, yet it suggests it covers many more.

Even my old MAF will likely be more accurate than one of those.

Harry Bloomfield pretended :

I now have the answer - it does indeed contain the Bosch 029 sensor. Next step is to buy one and check its output against standard 029 figures for our cars.

Fred The Shred submitted this idea :

Which might or might not be genuine and lots are faked. Bosch only sell them in a housing, these are not in a housing, so is it or is it not a Bosch?

It says "Genuine" enough times in the listing that if it turns out not to be, they really can't do anything but refund you.

FWIW...

I bought an Idle valve from e-bay for my olde Audi thinking that was the problem. Made no difference as the "new" one was s**te!. Looked OK but wasn't.

Got one from a breaker and no problems at all since then:)

A garage bloke told me they had a skip full of duff chinkie parts that had been fitted by other garages...

True, but we have our eye on a one supplied by a company with a reputation to loose, which is both much cheaper and in a (wrong) housing.

tony sayer presented the following explanation :

Exactly, we have the same problem with cheap imported parts and faked big name parts. Buy cheap, buy twice, unless the cheap source offers the genuine part. Fake suspension parts, fake brake parts, fake MAF's, fake mobile batteries. Some only last weeks.

I'm not sure that it would matter if a 'fake' - although obviously these vary in quality.

My E39 eats the heater speed control SMPS (hedgehog) and the present one - which has lasted by far the longest - is a far east 'fake'. And was much cheaper than a genuine one.

And some are better than the originals.

I now also track down original parts.

Some convincing web sites will claim OEM quality but a 'compatible' brake light switch from Euro Car Parts was found made of cheese (FAE - Barcelona) compared with the genuine stocked by VW. Threw 10 quid down the drain on that one ;-(

I agree that not all far east stuff is rubbish, but how do you tell the rubbish from the decent?

Several of us have bought 'genuine' MAF's and found them to be far worse than the one they are replacing. The correct MAF has an ASIC inside it which translates values via a look-up table, to feed to the ECU, and carefully calibbrated. They are much more complex than you might at first assume.

Not something you would get in a fake, or even a good copy. Likely the ECU's default table for a failed MAF would be more accurate than a fake item.

Indeed. Just don't like the common view that only maker's parts are any good. Since they often source from several makers anyway. And then add on a huge profit margin. I was charged 50 quid for a boot lock motor on my BMW. Opening up the failed one showed something which probably cost a few pennies to make. Absolute crap.

All of which another could copy if they really wanted to.

Well if it's all so complex, why are you baulking about paying for a genuine spare?

Simply because we are being charged over twice as much by Bosch for the very same part, but supplied for a different car - same part, both made by Bosch, both absolutely genuine.

They early outcome on a sample of one, is that the sensor is the correct part number and it is producing the correct results, which suggests Bosch is probably spinning us a few lies about the sensors being calibrated to the housings.