If you ever wondered how dirty your MAF can get....

dude you have visible silica dust on the MAF body !!!! clear evidence your filter ain't blocking what it should

with an intact and correct OEM filter that would just not ever happen.

 

airaid = money waste

 

no no no, toyota never, ever had bake-off MAF's

only very FEW vehicles have the cleaning cycle...because it sucks and does not work. some corvettes did it

The GM Bosch style system used on 5.0L/5.7L Firebirds,
Camaros, and Corvettes have a hot wire "burn-off" feature that
uses a relay to burn any impurities off of the hot wire

it leads to paying for a new MAF because they suck

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the MAF always has a thin heated wire and thermistor next to it.

as air flows across the heated wire it changes resistance and the measurement of resistance compared to intake
temp and temp of the wire tell the computer exactly how much air is flowing.

toyota MAF's have no self-cleaning....over time mung from the PCV build up and needs to
be blasted off with pure ethanol (impossible to obtain) or MAF cleaner (something that leaves zero residue)
carb cleaner no good, must be specific to MAF's


1) pull MAF
2) get flashlight, look at wires, should be shiny wire another shiny wire with a
rectangular chunk in the middle
3) If wires not silvery shiny, blast the bejeesus out of the tunnel with MAF cleaner..
it will freeze your friggin fingers off. shake it out. look at wires, ..clean ? no ? blast again, maybe soak it a bit. just do not touch the wires directly or it will
be a $300.00 mistake.
4) clean now ? shake it out, install. if still wet might be a hard initial start.
good to go

 

Rock Auto has the MAF sensor from $35 to $75, it's worth swapping it out once a year...

 

no

 

K&N filters would be good if they didn't oil them. The fact they do makes them shit. If you want a drop in filter use paper filters or if you want K&N style just get a K&N STYLE one but make sure is a dry style one.

 

I've been taking my Taco' off road more lately and I'm sure that helps it get dirty faster. Know I will probably just try to do it once or twice a year depending on how many miles I put on it. With almost 140k miles on it now, I don't know if it had ever been done. I am curious to see how dirty it will be next time I clean it.

 

K&N's aren't the problem. I've been running them for decades in every single vehicle I own, including my dirtbike. You just need to clean and oil it *properly*

 

If this makes you feel better about it, sure, it can't hurt. But I don't think it's necessary.

If the filter gets all clogged up, just take it out and slap it a few times and put it back in. You probably want to be a little careful with paper filters doing this as you might tear a hole in it, in which case a spare is always handy to have around.

 

I disconnect my negative battery cable before I clean anything electrical including my MAF sensor

 

I cleaned it from the back side with low pressure from the hose to push junk and dirt out. I don't recall oiling it as I think I only had the cleaner and not the oil. I also made sure to let it dry out really well before reinstalling it. I know over oiling is not good for it.

 

Yeah, that's true. I went to Baja over Thanksgiving and did about 1300 miles of dirt roads, a bunch of it on last year's baja 1000 course, every night I'd clean the air filter, check fluids, tires, etc. That air filter was so dirty the first few days I started cleaning out when we'd stop for lunch as well.

 

Word.

 

Well if you plan to go stock, and your a 4 cyl, I have a filter I bought on accident you can have it for a single dollar.

 

I wish I was, unfortunately I have the V6. Thanks for the offer though.

 

I've also been using the K&N filters in ALL my vehicles since they came out , with N0 problems- only use oil as per instructions .

 

If you didn't oil the filter that is probably why your MAF sensor is so dirty.

This for me as well. I've ran a K&N air filter in my 3.4 for the last ten years without any problems. That said I am not going through really dusty/sandy areas on a regular bases. I seem to remember if you do that you need more filtration. I don't know if they still make them or not but K&N used to have a wrap that went on their filters to help in dusty/sandy conditions.

 

Yeah, I remember that, it was basically a cloth bag to be used as a "pre-filter". It basically just made it easier to clean since you just had to remove the bag and knock it against a tree or something.

I've never needed to use one, though, even on my dirtbike. I've had one on my bike for close to a decade and that thing gets uber filthy, but every time I take it off, the engine side of the air chamber is perfectly clean.

 

I was surprised how dirty the MAF sensor was the first time I cleaned it at about 25,000 miles, despite the oil catch can I installed when I bought the truck new, and OEM air filter. I was also surprised how dirty the throttle body was. Now I clean the MAF sensor with every oil change and I'll probably clean the throttle body every 10-15,000 miles.

 

Im with you guys that have never had an issue with an oiled filter!! Im with ya, i see so so many posts about how horrible they are and get the intake all oiled up and everytime i think what are you guys doing, putting the whole can of oil on it?. Do it correctly and it will not get oil on the maf or anywhere within the intake.

Also i dont think that maf is completely out of the norm, (its a bit excessive but surly due to running the k&n unoiled after a clean out) especially if its never been cleaned. Fuck there isnt any filter in the world that keeps out every miniscule particulate down to the smallest micron, if it did it would also majorly restrict air flow too, certainly so after it became even the slightest bit dirty. That crud that collects on that thing is such fine particulate. Totally normal in my book to have a lil build up on there, especially if it hasn't been cleaned in 20 years.