i installed my K&n intake, had the M reflash and the all highway MPG were at 17 MPG that was going to orlando at 85 mile per hour. well i did what Huff ( vividracing) said and cleaned my air sensor well city 70 and highway 30 got me about 21MPG i said a 21 MPG. yes 21 MPG the highest ever. This was with redlining shifting at 4000 and drifting through corners when it was wet out. on a little more than i got 285 miles and i filled up with 14.0 gallons. I also used 87 oct.




:D :D :D :D :D

 

Clean it how?

 

How hard is it to clean?

 

This would be a great DIY

 

this sounds ground breaking!! how the hail do you find / clean the air sensoR? where is that lil mother even @? and what do you do to clean its sorry a$$?!... ive been getting 13-15 mpg steady tank in/out no matter what my driving style. no matter how much is city / highway .... i need to clean this muddah!

 

Ground breaking insofar as I can't read a damn thing he said. When did the schools quit teaching punctuation and other misc. grammar rules?

Basically, what I got was "I got 21 MPG after cleaning my air sensor. I drove it pretty hard, too."

Now, if only he would explain, e.g. which air sensor, what he cleaned it with. Oh, well.

 

I would reckon he cleaned the MAF, which is the main airflow sensor that's mounted to the intake. With a K&N, the oil from the filter can get drawn onto the airflow meter's sensor element, coating it and throwing its readings off.

I imagine hosing it down with carb cleaner will do the trick.

NOTE - this will likely ONLY work for people with a K&N. The oil from the filter is what causes the problem. A bone stock car likely wouldn't show an improvement.

Dale

 

I think someone cleaned theirs with some alcohol. Does the MAF just pull out or do you need tools. I've never actually looked at one on the '8. Might be something fun to do for lunch...

 

Was thinking of getting an aftermarket air filter...

Interesting. I'll look up the MAF sensor procedures in the shop manual I just got. Maybe it'll talk about cleaning. This'll be its first "official look-up"

 

yeah man, keep us posted

I second the D.I.Y suggestion

 

It's not just for the K&N. Look at the oil in the air box thread, iI'd sure like to know how to clean it. Maybe I'll take it apart, on my truck it was a odd looking butterfly that was really easy to rebuild when it failed.

 

Sorry guys I have been quite busy. Yes, the sensor that I have cleaned was the MAf I cleaned it whith alcohol. My sensor was so dirty that the Q tip that used was black and very oily.

 

The shop manual (p 01-40-30) shows the MAF/IAT sensor is located just behind the air filter box, and it is attached to the top side of the air pipe by two screws. Disconnect the sensor connector, the two screws and lift the MAF/IAT out of the pipe.

It mentions inspecting the MAF/IAT for any damage, but it does not talk about how or with what too "clean" it.

 

I'm going to vote on alcohol. It seems other people are using it, and it shouldn't screw anything up after it evaporates.

 

I third, fourth, or whatever number we are at, for a DIY with pictures.

 

It only takes a minute to remove it and check it as per the above directions (2 screws and a wire harness). When I had the 'oil-in-the-airbox' problem (there's a whole thread on that), I had a light film coating the MAF sensor, and I cleaned it with Isopropyl alcohol and a Q-tip. However, if you're using the stock paper-element filter, there shouldn't be any thing coating your MAF sensor (unless you've got oil in your intake tract like a few of us have found.. then you've got bigger problems than just a dirty MAF sensor).

The K&N may sound great, but this is just another reason not to run with an oiled filter/intake.

 

just pour some of your pabst blue ribbon on it and rub it clean with your shirt.... lol. thats how mom always used to get'er done!

 

Here's a mini DIY if you want to check your MAF sensor...

Pic one: This is where you find it (under the engine cover):

 

Remove the two screws and disconnect the wire harness, and carefully pull straight out: (sorry- didn't know this was blurry until it was too late

 

And lastly, a closeup of the sensor... the brown tear-drop on the right is the actual sensor and the part that would need cleaning:

 

Excellent!~~~ Get me my Qtips Mr. Smithers...

 

Actually that is the IAT sensor.

The MAF is up inside the plastic housing

 

Looks like were back to square one. What the hell did he really clean?

 

I don't know if I belive his story.

Everyone here who bought their car new got a new CLEAN car. Why would the sensor be dirty or need to be cleaned to begin with? And if it was all that needed to be done to fix the mileage problem, wouldn't Mazda be aware of it and let someone know instead of keeping it a secret?

 

I decided to look at mine after reading this thread (and the previous reports of oil in the air box). I had no oil in airbox, but in the accordion tube between the airbox and the throttle body there was some waxy substance - could have been emulsified oil from the cold periods where the emulsion built up in the dipstick tube, but that's just a guess. So, I removed the accordion tube and found that there was a bit of a ridge built up in the throttle body where the throttle plate seats. Might have been oil carbonized, I'm not sure - but I do know it shouldn't have been there! I used throttle body cleaner and a rag to clean up the bore of the throttle body around the throttle plate.

Jason, yeah once upon a time my car was new! :D Now, it's got 19000 km on it (~12000 mi). I've noticed over the past 3 months or so that my mileage has dropped markedly. It's entirely possible that a dirty MAF could affect the fuel consumption - I noticed that my car is idling perfectly smoothly again after cleaning the throttle body, and it had been a little rough. I'll see after another 1K km or so whether the mileage seems to have improved (I certainly don't believe one tank's worth, ~200 or 300 miles, can give any statistically valid measure of an increase or decrease in fuel consumption).

Regards,
Gordon