Heres a good one... Im stumped?

[mikestertwo]

I have had 4 different cars come in with stock MAF failures and each time it was because the person put the MAF in backwards. My son also had this problem when he removed the MAF to do some work on the car and when he reinstalled it, he put it in backwards. Took the car out for about 15 minutes and like you said ran pig rich. Discovered the problem, turned the MAF around and the car still ran pig rich. Looked inside, and the strain gauge was black and wrinkled. This was the same symptom on the other cars, reversing the MAF and the strain gauge appeared to overheat. I have never seen this kind of problem with the LT1 style mafs. Reversing them seemed to have no ill effect on the maf. Now, this failure happening once with a maf could have just been a fluke, twice maybe, but I believe in cause and effect. I have seen this happen 5 times in the last 10 years and each time the failure was right after the MAF was reversed. If the reverse flow wasn't the cause of the failures, enlighten me, I'm open minded and willing to learn.

 

[wagon]

MAF
Alternator
Coil pack/ Module or it's connections

 

[TurboTnZ06]

....About 5k ago I did a ...high volume oil pump.......

Don't rule out the cam gear that is not spinning the cam sensor...Mine actually started with a sheared pin. If lucky enough, the 5 degree window can allow it to start even if the pin is sheared but jammed the gear enough to let the cam sensor spin some. Plus it is easy to pull the cam sensor black plastic cap and spin it by hand without removing the whole assembly to see if the pin has the gear locked in place.

 

[gndoug]

BING BADA BOOM!!!!!!

Fixed it! My car was effing with me. IT was........... the MAF. It threw me off because when I unplugged the MAF, the car seemed to drive/act the same. I started it up with the old MAF, and the car seemed to run pretty decent until it got warm... then it ran exactly the same as it did before. Popped the good one on, and drove it around for about 15 minutes.... it ran great. Heres the really screwed up part... When I went to go home, I pulled out from our parking lot, mashed on it, and my car stumbled, bucked, then accelerated as normal. I thought it was strange.... So I went WOT again, and this time it ran REALLY bad, with the new MAF. So I flipped it around, barly made it back to the shop, and my car died. I could get it to start, run for a few seconds, missing really bad, and then die. I was kinda dissapointed, I wanted to drive my car over the weekend..... But I figured this one out in less than a minute.....

My dumb a$$ ran out of gas.... oops. Grabbed a gas can, put a gallon in it, drove down to the gas station, and its ran great ever since... (btw, when I got the car the gauge didnt work, and ive just been to cheap to pay for a sender when I usually just tank up every time I go out.)

Moral of the story.... I dunno?

 

[wagon]

Disconnecting the MAF won't make the car run right, it will just make it so that you can limp home, but it may improve the idle if you have a bad one. Glad you figured it out.

P.S. I've done that run out of gas thing before too. Kind of annoying when you are thinking of everything else and it turns out to be an empty tank.

 

[turbo39151]

do yourself a favor and get the low fuel light option. It's saved me a few times

 

[Lturbo6]

do yourself a favor and get the low fuel light option. It's saved me a few times

Where do you get an low fuel light from?

 

[turbo39151]

you can find them on select cars in the salvage yards. I usually find an occasional one on ebay.