a couple daysa go i bought a cold air intake. so i had to make one of those goofy adapters for the maf sensor. first i started with a 1/8 inch think piece of aluminum. i used tin snips and then did the star cut out pattern in the middle and bent out eh flaps to atach the intake too. however when i tighten the hose clamp it would always fall off. so the next day i was working on it to try to get it to fit better and also removing the bottom half of the air box. my dad saw what iwas doing and at about the same time my next door nieghbr came up. so they decided the way to do it was to make it out of 1/4 inch steel and then weld a piece a piece of 3 inch pipe on for the inlet. a few hours later. i have a nice adapter i threew wsome RTV on for good measure aroudn the seam and put it on the MAF unit. a few minutes later my nieghbor came back with an old k/n filter some cleaner and filter oil that he didnt need any more. while the kn filter was too big i tried that oil out. its the stuff that suppose to catch more dirt. while i put a little TOO much on. so when it looked dry i put it on however it was just dripping int he oil. so i sarted it up worked fine cool. however the check engine light came on. i didnt have time that day to fix it so i drove it it worked great, no idea why the light came on. next day open it up take out the MAF sensor to check it out. the sensor is coated with the kn } oil.} so i tyook out the whole unit and started cleaning it. rubbing alcohol and q tips. it was going good until i tried to clean around the heat transistor . i broke it. so i called around to see how much a new one is. napa was like 260 for an outta state order champin 360 subby 350 i called a local used parts place and got one from a 98 forester for 35.00. put it in, cleaned as much oil out of the filter as i could, put it in oddly when i turned ont he AC it died, and it would idle at about 150 RPM. so i went for a test drive. it was getting kinda cloudy so i was in a hurry. driving around hit some stop and go traffic. then it started boggin down so i was about to stop. then a guy passed me and said my tire was low GGRRR.... i always get low tires. stopped at SA to put in some air. popped the hood, and right away i saw that i had for got to plug in the sensor to the connector after that it ran great. no probs since, chech engine is still on but i am gettign that cleared friday.
LOL! Funny story. Sorry it costed you $35 out of your wallet, but it made you a bit more aware of what sensors play a part into your vehicle. Oh, and if your tires are always low/flat, you should have them checked. Option: you can have Discount Tire look at why the tires are always leaking air. They will fix it for a small fee, but you can use that fee (100% of it) to go to your next purchase from them. I love their services/warranty.
Just be glad it wasn't a pre-recalled MY99 hot-film MAF sensor. OMG those f-ing pieces of f'ed up s--ty a-- f'ing s---boxes ! At $300 each new I think I went through 4 of them before Subaru recalled them, and by then I no longer needed the **** things. F' those things !!!
I had a recall on my 99 Forester for that sensor. At the time I had cut the box off and had replaced it with a intake cone, not knowing that it may need the metal grilled mesh to create air velocity, it caused my check engine and made to car run horrible. The a/f was way off. I took it to the shop and they told me the same thing a brand new one was at leat $340.00. I didn't want to pay that much so I started looking around for a used part. Never did find one, so I sprayed it with some brake cleaner, the car was running nicely again. A few day later I recieved a letter from Subaru about a recall and it was for the sensor. So I got a new one. C
i have had the tire thing happen before on my front right. i brought it in to a tire place. they said it was a a bad seal between the tire and rim because of corroaion on the aluminum. it cost 20 to fix now it works fine. so i think it will be a cheap fix
