skidaveski

Hi all. I'm having a prob with my car. It does this weird thing sometimes, where when driving, or even sitting at traffic lights, it will start running really rough. The revs may drop right off, and sometimes the engine will realise and quickly increase revs to make it idle correctly again.

Sometimes, it doesn't correct itself.

The other night driving home, it started doing this again. Real jerky acceleration, to the point where it was just rev (pause for a second) rev (pause for a second) rev (pause for a second) rev (pause for a second) - you get the idea. I could put my foot flat on the accelerator and it wouldn't increase the revs AT ALL. I had to stop and turn the car off. When it restarted, it seemed to be fine.

I have put injector cleaner through. I've replaced spark plugs, and leads with Bosch and Top Gun respectively.

My mechanic now says it may be the AIR FLOW METER, but isn't sure. This item costs $1500!

Any other suggestions, or where, if need be, I could get an aftermarket or rebuild kit for this dumb thing.

If I do have to replace it and spend this much money, is there another similar part that I could get for increased performance since I'm already spending that much money.

I'm desperate. This has been going on for too long. The car's only done 43,000 kms.

Thanks in advance.

EDXR8

Idle problems are often caused by vaccum leak on one of the hoses on the upper manifold. Also, it could be the ISC, which controlls the idle.

I just got a Pro-M 75mm MAF, the best on the market IMO for $600 whick flows 47% better than stock. Give Mick Webb's SVO motorsport, or herrod a call as well. Although they are in Victoria, I am sure they will have a number of stock MAF's laying around from people who have upgraded.

MKII240T

Before believing your mechnic who thinks its the air flow meter, put the car on the dyno which should reveal all problems before you go wasting money on other parts which may not even be faulty

TopGhia

Is it showing any fault codes? Does your mechanic have a EEC V code reader? It's not much use having on-board diagnostics if they are not used.

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skidaveski

Yep, my mechanic does have an EEC V code reader. It is showing no errors or problems whatsoever.

I've spoken to a few other people and they are tending to think it's the same thing as well.

Would a go on the dyno really be able to identify errors of this sort?

TopGhia

Hmmm, so much for on-board diagnostics.

Have you got a K&N oiled filter? Sometimes oil from the filter can gunk up the MAF sensor wire. There is a thread/post here somewhere on cleaning the MAF.

I take it your'e using good quality petrol (min 95 RON)

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skidaveski

I don't have a K&N oiled filter - I do have a Redline Panel filter though.

I am indeed using good quality petrol - we ruled that out early.

Where would I find this wire that may need cleaning?

EDXR8

When you look into the MAF from the airbox side, you will see the main hole, and then a small under a cm sized hole on the side. The MAF wire sensor is in there. Clean it out with carby cleaner and allow to dry before using it. If you can, remove the sensor from the MAF, and clean it, but you do need a security torx head screwdriver.

BLWNEB

Yep i suggest going to a dyno tuner will tell you straight away the problem.

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TopGhia

Why pay for it if you can fix it yourself?

__________________
"I married Miss Right. I just didn't know her first name was Always."