Cleaning mass air flow sensor

A simple google search gets you lots of hints on cleaning.

But there's ALSO a lot of ignorance about it!

Use rubbing alcohol, cheap and leaves NO residue. DO NOT USE WINDEX or any spray automotive degreaser !

- AND-

The thing IS NOT real fragile, soft-medium bristle paint or chip brush works fine... key is dont drop it or bend anything.

Remove the sensor fron the housing, directly. Use locking pliers, replace screws with same thread phillips if you want.

If you want to clean the MAF housing body, do it with any spray cleaner.. with sensor removed.

Chuck opined in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

BTW... another ignorant thing to do is use a Q tip! That is so stupid that I ALWAYS forget to include it on my first response.

If you leave a couple fibers on the sensor wires, that could disturb air flow over the sensor. Not saying it would, but why do that in the first place! Right tool for the job is a bristled paint brush. it gets between wire windings down to the bobbin/substrate

- - - - - - - -- - - -- - - - - - - - - - And if you reset and lite doesnt come back after learning cycle, yes.. was either transient problem or marginal result of other malfunction.

Backyard Mechanic opined

In addition to Michaels comment..... if you have a soft bristle brush (along the lines of a "babies first toothbrush") you can use this gently. Whether anyone thinks this is a hardy sensor or not, there is no sense nor need to get rammy with the thing. I am told that the sensing elements do have a coating on them. Repeated, unnecessary cleaning *may* be hard on the coating. I use a magnifying glass to inspect the sensor and use my best judgement as to whether cleaning is warranted or not.

Lastly, depending on year/make/model/engine/computer strategy, there may be a "burn off" cycle so be sure to let the piece air dry thoroughly before reinstalling it.

Jim Warman opined in news:EZoqd.9893$cE3.7263@clgrps12:

Yer both allowed....:)

But that gets down to what I said, there's a lot of mis-perceptions out there.

I DO respectfully submit that a CLEAN paint brush is less prone to damage the sensor than a toothbrush, no matter the bristle, mainly because its hard parts are farther away.

And almost every modern coating is relatively impervious to alcohol, short- term

Thanks for the advice guys... I'm going to open it up and look at it this afternoon... but without Q tips! (but Q tips was what I would have tried if you hadn't reposted!) Chuck

Phew, I guess I'm lucky. I used a Q-tip without any obvious problems when I cleaned the sensor wire a couple of years ago.