Well, I've completely humbled myself. I've been having random problems that weren't severe, until I had a MAF sensor short out. Luckily I found one at a junk yard for $40. I hope it lasts. But why did it short?
Randomly, on rainy days, on the highway, the car would choke. The computer threw some random misfire codes. I did some forum searching, and the suggestion was to replace the plug wires. Done, no problem for 3-8 months. Great!
The snow here has turned into a salt brine, so the wheel-wells get tons of spray. I was pretty sure that this was the cause of my MAF problem, but the car behaved just like it did before I replaced the plug wires. Got my handy code reader, P0102 and P0103, low and high MAF voltage. I'm guessing the high voltage was from the short, and the low was from it being dead. Luckily I got home without it stalling. Got out the handy code reader and the airflow read 0 g/s at idle through 3k RPM, so I was pretty sure the MAF was toast. I'm dissecting it in the basement now, but the replacement is in place.
So, why am I sucking water through my intake? Time to remove the wheel-well and see what's up. The first picture is what I found, a completely rusted cone filter. This is really nasty. I don't know how any air got through here, but it sure explains some other issues. Wherever the car was sucking air, it got water too.
Does anyone have any suggestions for sealing up the wheel-well so that water doesn't get in there? Obviously I'm getting a new filter, but that and my new MAF will endure the same fate unless I prevent the nasty salty brine from getting in there, rusting the filter, clogging it, and shorting out my MAF sensor.
So what else did this cause. Hmm, could be my massive oil consumption problem. I couldn't figure out why the PCV was flowing so much more oil into the intake than any other car I've seen. I put in a water separator for an air compressor to solve the problem. It has done a really good job, but the can is full by the time i get through 3/4 tank of gas. Mileage hasn't been that great either, but Pittsburgh sucks for traffic and hills.
These pictures were incredibly eye-opening for me. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes. Hopefully, someone can help me figure out a solution too. Any suggestions are welcome. I prefer not to use the stock intake, because it sux.
Thanks.
Randomly, on rainy days, on the highway, the car would choke. The computer threw some random misfire codes. I did some forum searching, and the suggestion was to replace the plug wires. Done, no problem for 3-8 months. Great!
The snow here has turned into a salt brine, so the wheel-wells get tons of spray. I was pretty sure that this was the cause of my MAF problem, but the car behaved just like it did before I replaced the plug wires. Got my handy code reader, P0102 and P0103, low and high MAF voltage. I'm guessing the high voltage was from the short, and the low was from it being dead. Luckily I got home without it stalling. Got out the handy code reader and the airflow read 0 g/s at idle through 3k RPM, so I was pretty sure the MAF was toast. I'm dissecting it in the basement now, but the replacement is in place.
So, why am I sucking water through my intake? Time to remove the wheel-well and see what's up. The first picture is what I found, a completely rusted cone filter. This is really nasty. I don't know how any air got through here, but it sure explains some other issues. Wherever the car was sucking air, it got water too.
Does anyone have any suggestions for sealing up the wheel-well so that water doesn't get in there? Obviously I'm getting a new filter, but that and my new MAF will endure the same fate unless I prevent the nasty salty brine from getting in there, rusting the filter, clogging it, and shorting out my MAF sensor.
So what else did this cause. Hmm, could be my massive oil consumption problem. I couldn't figure out why the PCV was flowing so much more oil into the intake than any other car I've seen. I put in a water separator for an air compressor to solve the problem. It has done a really good job, but the can is full by the time i get through 3/4 tank of gas. Mileage hasn't been that great either, but Pittsburgh sucks for traffic and hills.
These pictures were incredibly eye-opening for me. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes. Hopefully, someone can help me figure out a solution too. Any suggestions are welcome. I prefer not to use the stock intake, because it sux.
Thanks.