Where To Buy Mass Air Flow Sensor BETTER
When air from the outside enters the engine, the mass air flow sensor detects the mass of this air. Once the air flow mass is calculated, the sensor sends this information to the engine control module.
where to buy mass air flow sensor
Remember, the engine control unit needs the correct mass air flow information to know how much fuel to put into the engine cylinders. If the information is incorrect, then an incorrect amount of fuel will be put into the engine causing it to run either too lean or too rich.
To help you catch this problem early on, here are five of the most common signs of a faulty mass air flow sensor that you can watch out for. Some of these symptoms can be caused by other problems with the vehicle.
This will cause the engine to experience rough idling whenever you park or stop the vehicle. Watch the tachometer on your dashboard and see if your RPM speed fluctuates rapidly in an idle position. If it does, then you probably have a bad mass air flow sensor to worry about.
If you keep experiencing this engine stalling problem, try to get your vehicle to the nearest auto mechanic before you cannot start your engine at all. If you already experienced rough idling before this symptom, then stalling will further confirm that you have a bad mass air flow sensor.
If you step on the gas pedal to accelerate your vehicle and experience hesitation as you try to go faster, you might have a bad mass air flow sensor. This can definitely be confirmed if the hesitation is followed by jerkiness.
The car will start to jerk a lot as you try to go faster. These are all signs that your engine is not receiving the correct amount of air and fuel. Although other issues can cause this to happen, check the mass air flow sensor to see if that is still functional.
The replacement cost of a mass air flow sensor can anywhere from $80 to $380. The cost of the part alone is about $30 to $300 with the lower end of the range for common aftermarket mass air flow sensors while higher quality or more complicated OEM sensors are more expensive. Expect to pay around $50 to $80 in labor if you allow a professional to replace it.
Your engine requires a precise mixture of fuel and air in order to run at maximum power and efficiency. The mass air flow sensor (MAF) measures how much air goes into your engine. This enables the ECM (the computer that runs the engine) to calculate and add the proper amount of fuel. Sometimes this sensor can get clogged with debris or fail entirely. This gives the ECM inaccurate information and causes an incorrect fuel/air mixture.
If you continue to drive with a bad MAF, it could cause your engine to misfire. Ignoring a misfire could result in ignition failure, catalytic converter damage, and unsafe or dangerous conditions while operating the vehicle. Replacing the mass air flow sensor sooner rather than later will avoid these potentially more serious and expensive problems.
A faulty mass airflow meter can cause myriad problems, such as rough acceleration and idling, stalling and hesitation. It may be difficult to diagnose since the failure of a number of parts may mirror these symptoms. The same symptoms can be caused by any number of different parts: bad wires, spark plugs, fuel filter, distributor, pumps and injectors or timing.
The mass airflow sensor, or mass airflow meter, measures the amount (mass) of air that is entering the engine and then conveys this information to the ECU, or engine control unit. This ready flow of information allows the ECU to mix the proper amount of fuel with the airflow in order to create efficient combustion. Faulty mass airflow sensors send inaccurate readings to the engine control unit, causing it to mix the incorrect amount of air to fuel, throwing off the entire ratio. To get a better understanding of a mass airflow sensor, here are some ideas to consider:
YourMechanic supplies top-quality mass airflow sensors to our certified mobile technicians. We can also install a mass airflow sensor that you've purchased. Click here to get a quote and more information on mass airflow sensor replacement.
The air mass information is necessary for the engine control unit (ECU) to balance and deliver the correct fuel mass to the engine. Air changes its density with temperature and pressure. In automotive applications, air density varies with the ambient temperature, altitude and the use of forced induction, which means that mass flow sensors are more appropriate than volumetric flow sensors for determining the quantity of intake air in each cylinder.
There are two common types of mass airflow sensors in use on automotive engines. These are the vane meter and the hot wire. Neither design employs technology that measures air mass directly. However, with additional sensors and inputs, an engine's ECU can determine the mass flow rate of intake air.
When a MAF sensor is used in conjunction with an oxygen sensor, the engine's air/fuel ratio can be controlled very accurately. The MAF sensor provides the open-loop controller predicted air flow information (the measured air flow) to the ECU, and the oxygen sensor provides closed-loop feedback in order to make minor corrections to the predicted air mass. Also see manifold absolute pressure sensor (MAP sensor). Since around 2012, some MAF sensors include a humidity sensor.[1]
The VAF (volume air flow) sensor measures the air flow into the engine with a spring-loaded air vane (flap/door) attached to a variable resistor (potentiometer). The vane moves in proportion to the airflow. A voltage is applied to the potentiometer and a voltage appears on the output terminal of the potentiometer proportional to the angle the vane rotates, or the movement of the vane may directly regulate the amount of fuel injected, as in the K-Jetronic system.
Many VAF sensors have an air-fuel adjustment screw, which opens or closes a small air passage on the side of the VAF sensor. This screw controls the air-fuel mixture by letting a metered amount of air flow past the air flap, thereby leaning or richening the mixture. By turning the screw clockwise the mixture is enriched and counterclockwise the mixture is leaned.
The vane moves because of the drag force of the air flow against it; it does not measure volume or mass directly. The drag force depends on air density (air density in turn depends on air temperature), air velocity and the shape of the vane, see drag equation. Some VAF sensors include an additional intake air temperature sensor (IAT sensor) to allow the engines ECU to calculate the density of the air, and the fuel delivery accordingly.
If air density increases due to pressure increase or temperature drop, but the air volume remains constant, the denser air will remove more heat from the wire indicating a higher mass airflow. Unlike the vane meter's paddle sensing element, the hot wire responds directly to air density. This sensor's capabilities are well suited to support the gasoline combustion process which fundamentally responds to air mass, not air volume. (See stoichiometry.)
The hot film MAF sensor works somewhat similar to the hot wire MAF sensor, but instead it usually outputs a frequency signal. This sensor uses a hot film-grid instead of a hot wire.[3] It is commonly found in late 1980s and early 1990s fuel-injected vehicles. The output frequency is directly proportional to the air mass entering the engine. So as mass flow increases so does frequency. These sensors tend to cause intermittent problems due to internal electrical failures. The use of an oscilloscope is strongly recommended to check the output frequency of these sensors. Frequency distortion is also common when the sensor starts to fail. Many technicians in the field use a tap test with very conclusive results. Not all HFM systems output a frequency. In some cases, this sensor works by outputting a regular varying voltage signal.
The mesh on the MAF is used to smooth out airflow to ensure the sensors have the best chance of a steady reading. It is not used for measuring the air flow per se. In situations where owners use oiled-gauze air filters, it is possible for excess oil to coat the MAF sensor and skew its readings. Indeed, General Motors has issued a Technical Service Bulletin, indicating problems from rough idle all the way to possible transmission damage resulting from the contaminated sensors. To clean the delicate MAF sensor components, a specific MAF sensor cleaner or electronics cleaner should be used, not carburetor or brake cleaners, which can be too aggressive chemically. Instead, the liquid phase of MAF sensor cleaners and electronics cleaners is typically based on hexanes or heptanes with little to no alcohol content and use either carbon dioxide or HFC-152a as aerosol propellants. The sensors should be gently sprayed from a careful distance to avoid physically damaging them and then allowed to thoroughly dry before reinstalling. Manufacturers claim that a simple but extremely reliable test to ensure correct functionality is to tap the unit with the back of a screwdriver while the car is running, and if this causes any changes in the output frequency then the unit should be discarded and an OEM replacement installed.
A Kármán vortex sensor works by disrupting the air stream with a perpendicular bow. Providing that the incoming flow is laminar, the wake consists of an oscillatory pattern of Kármán vortices. The frequency of the resulting pattern is proportional to the air velocity.
An emerging technology utilizes a very thin electronic membrane placed in the air stream. The membrane has a thin film temperature sensor printed on the upstream side, and one on the downstream side. A heater is integrated in the center of the membrane which maintains a constant temperature similar to the hot-wire approach. Without any airflow, the temperature profile across the membrane is uniform. When air flows across the membrane, the upstream side cools differently from the downstream side. The difference between the upstream and downstream temperature indicates the mass airflow. The thermal membrane sensor is also capable of measuring flow in both directions, which sometimes occur in pulsating situations. Technological progress allows this kind of sensor to be manufactured on the microscopic scale as microsensors using microelectromechanical systems technology. Such a microsensor reaches a significantly higher speed and sensitivity compared with macroscopic approaches. See also MEMS sensor generations. 041b061a72