I'll post a picture in a few minutes, but for now, I'm gonna paint a picture with words:

I have a Mercedes 3.2L V6 MAF sensorsitting next to my 180 FWD MAF sensor ('02, K03S turbo), and I've noticed that my MAF sensor does not have the little resistor that the 3.2 does. It has two terminals sticking up where the resistor should connect (and even a picture of the resistor on the MAF sensor plastic), but no resistor.

Now, I'm only looking at this stupid thing because my car has, for a long time, acted funny -- sometimes, it runs FAST, other times, it runs slower... It's not a huge fluctuation in performance, but I notice it. For example, I beat a modded, well driven e36 M3 the other night (I've got mods, but they aren't the cause of the problem) ((my second M3 kill)), but if the car was having this issue, it would have been lost!

Essentially, I experience an approximate 20% fluctuation in performance, seemingly randomly. On one start, the car will drive perfectly well. On another start, it will lose 20% of its power in the exact same conditions. On yet another start, it will be back to normal.

Now, of course, I'm thinking MAF. I also have a problem (I believe it's related) where, if I hit the gas, but only a little bit, I'll get some "chugging" or hesitation right around 3000rpms. The car stutters a bit, then goes into violent acceleration. When flooring it from a start to the rev line, there is no drop-off and the car is great (except, of course, for when I'm having the 20% +/- issue).

Any ideas at all? Do I simply need to clean the MAF and, if so, should I just use electrical parts cleaner from Advance Discount Auto?

Thanks for the assistance, folks. Much love to all the quick TTs and fast Vdubs


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Its pretty cheap to pick up a can of cleaner, and it certainly doesn't hurt to clean the MAF once in a while, so you can't go wrong there. I'd look for MAF cleaner over a generic electrical cleaner, chances are, its on the same shelf in the parts store, but I also can't see where a general electrical cleaner would be a problem.

 

sounds like someone did the resistor mod but cut it off when it failed, the MAF should have a resistor hanging down inside the unit ( sounds like a mod gone too far )

 

thanks for the quick replies -- it actually looks as if there never was a resistor there! Let me get this picture up...


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this link might be of use
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?im...%3Den%26sa%3DN

 

Avant, thanks for the post... this may or may not be the same type of resistor, as the one at that link appears to be in the path of airflow... picture coming now, I promise!


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mine is on the right!


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[IMG]local://upfiles/38582/F3E4D68F21844B939E5FDC10E1DA678E.jpg[/IMG]

 

looks like someone did a chop there, there should be a resistor in there

 

ok.... are you positive? I trust your word on it, I lurk here a lot and you give good advice. can anyone else say that their TT definiely has this resistor on there? btw, what is the resistor mod that you referred to? is there something I can do for more performance?

 

bump for desperation