Bring your car, truck, or C/SUV to Peerless Automotive if you are having any of the problems listed below. These problems are signs that the mass airflow or MAF sensor is dirty and malfunctioning. We can clean the sensor to see if this resolves the problem. If it doesn’t, we can replace the old MAF sensor with a new one. Let’s talk more about what a faulty MAF sensor will do.
Acceleration Lag
One of the first things that might happen is your vehicle’s acceleration may start to lag. This is because the engine control unit or ECU has added air to the combustion chamber. This can happen because the MAF sensor reported incorrect air inflow data to the ECU because it’s malfunctioning.
Rough Engine Idle
Your engine will also start to idle roughly if there is too much air in the combustion chamber. The air is overtaking the fuel, and, as a consequence, the engine is being fuel-starved. Any time an engine is fuel-starved, it struggles to run smoothly and efficiently.
Poor Performance
This poor performance is also going to occur while you are driving the automobile. Your engine will sputter and hiccup. In severe cases, it may idle so roughly that it stalls. You may be frustrated that your vehicle is not performing the way it normally does, but it will continue to underperform until the MAF sensor is cleaned or replaced.
Surging Performance
The ECU can also create an opposite problem by adding extra gas into the combustion chamber. When this happens, your engine will surge. You may also notice black exhaust flowing out of the tailpipe because this type of exhaust is created when the engine is burning fuel.
Reduced Fuel Economy
Whether the engine performance is sputtering or surging, your fuel economy is going to be indirectly affected by the MAF sensor. Unfortunately, the fuel economy will be reduced and you will need to fill your tank more often.
Hard Starts/No Starts
If the imbalance of air and fuel in the chamber is severe, you may have difficulties getting your automobile started or you may not be able to start it at all. It’s hard to believe that a tiny sensor can cause these many problems, but it can.
Check Engine Light
Finally, because the engine is not running efficiently, the ECU may turn on the check engine light. As the engine fights with the imbalance in the combustion chamber, system sensors will send error codes to the ECU.
Peerless Automotive in Olathe, KS, is here to help, so give us a call today.