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air flow meter

2K views 11 replies 7 participants last post by  325iS 
#1 ·
hey, i hope i'm posting in the right area, i haven't been on here in awhile, since the last time i had a problem with my car. it's a 93 325is. anywho, it recently started having problems after a short four hour road trip. we went to get off at an exit and as we were stopping at the end of the ramp, the car just completely shut off. when we started it back up, it rev'ed up and down, and once again, off. so at stop signs/lights we basically just ran the accelator because we obviously needed to finish the road trip. anywho, my fiance who does all the repairs on the car said he was 99% sure it was the idle control valve. i went ahead and ordered one, we got it on the car, and the car definately wasn't fine. it felt a little stronger, but still did the rev'ing/stalling crap. so i was flying out of birmingham, al and there was a dealership about 15 minutes from the airport, so i made a diagnostics appointment, they only charged us $47 instead of $112, which was pretty nice, and told us it was the air flow meter (and i once again need a new o2 sensor). so all in all, i'm basically asking where the best place to find one is. the site i use to order parts off of went out of business i guess, it just disappeared. and then the place i ordered my idle control valve doesn't carry an air flow meter/air mass meter.

so if anyone could provide any insight on a reasonablely priced site, it'd be awesome. also, someone mentioned that with us driving the car with the air mass meter, it could mess another part up, but i forgot what part they said. does anyone know? i may just order a new one with the air mass meter and o2 sensor. thanks for any help you can provide. i don't feel like spending $500 on the part from the dealership.
 
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#2 ·
The best site I've found so far for cheap OEM parts is autohausaz.com. They have them for your car but you'll need to know what your production date is. As far as the "other part" goes, they may have been refering to your Catalytic converter being damaged by excess fuel in the exhaust that can burn really hot inside your Cat. and damage it. You'll know this is happening by the rotten egg smell coming from the exhaust.
 
#3 ·
i'm going to ask another dumb question, is an air mass sensior the same as the air flow meter? i'm assuming it is, but would like someone that can do more than assume like me, lol. thanks again. and the part is $300 on there, like you said, that's about the cheapest i've seen so far.
 
#4 ·
Try cleaning yours first !

Its pretty common for the MAF to need cleaning once in a while. Just get some CRC Electrical Contact cleaner from any autoparts store and remove the MAF and spray clean it. Then reinstall it and see how it does, before you plunk down $300 on a new unit. Rarely are they replaced.





Mike
 
#5 ·
Is the MAF the same as the Air Mass Meter? Sorry guys, I'm not mechanical, lol. The people at the dealership said it needed to be replaced, because I do remember my fiance asking if it needed to be cleaned, but they said no. I guess I could just tell him to clean it and see if it helps at all. Thanks for the help so far.
 
#6 ·
e36chick said:
Is the MAF the same as the Air Mass Meter? Sorry guys, I'm not mechanical, lol. The people at the dealership said it needed to be replaced, because I do remember my fiance asking if it needed to be cleaned, but they said no. I guess I could just tell him to clean it and see if it helps at all. Thanks for the help so far.

yes the MAF = Air MAss Meter...try looking on bimmerforums.com in the classified parts section for a used one with low miles on it.... need anymore help pm me or hit me up on AIM - speedinfusion
 
#7 ·
Do what hamfisted said. I've never really heard of anyoen actualyl needign to repalce this part. Just clean it out and you should run fine. What the dealer diagnosed seems legitimate.

If it runs fine once you clean out the MAF drive it normally for a week or so. Durign this time monitor your gas mileage. If you're gettign below average fuel consumption then you may need to replace the O2 sensor.
 
#9 ·
I have a similar issue but my car has never died... ocassionaly after coming to a stop it will bounce from 500 RPMs to about 6 or 7, but never more than 10 times and it has never died... I get good gas milage as well. She stutters a little after dry starts but I assumed that was the fuel filter. I also notice that slight whistling noise... ne ideas about whats up?
 
#11 ·
Wouldn't the dealership have noticed a loose/fallen off hose when they checked over the car? They always seem to throw every problem on my diagnostics papers they can, I don't see why they wouldn't list that. But anyways, my fiance is checking that as we speak, but we doubt that is the problem because he has taken it off to clean it and it still didn't improve it.

The idle control valve was replaced three weeks ago as we thought that was the problem, after replacing it, the car still ran the same. This is when we decided to take it to the dealership instead of throwing more money at what we 'think' was the problem. The o2 sensor was also replaced a few months ago, I do realize it will probably have to be replaced again because with the air flow meter it's probably gone bad, and my car probably needs new catalytic converters as well because of this. But the car has 220,000+ miles on it, so I'm not too surprised with the problems, just finding the root can sometimes be a pain in the ass.
 
#12 ·
e36chick said:
Wouldn't the dealership have noticed a loose/fallen off hose when they checked over the car?
I'm not sure exactly how the '93 intakes route, but on my '92, there is a small, rubber elbow that connects the MAF to the throttle body. This elbow has two fittings underneath it that have hoses that go elsewhere. If yours is the same, make sure that the hoses are attached, not only to the elbow, but also wherever they lead to at the other end.
 
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