Question

How do you know if you have a bad mass air flow sensor?

Answer 1

The job of the mass air flow sensor on a vehicle is to tell the computer how much air is flowing into your engine so that the computer knows how much fuel to send to through the engine and control the fuel injectors.

When the mass air flow sensor tells the computer how much air is flowing into your engine, the computer can then direct the vehicles fuel injectors to add more or less gasoline to the air/fuel mixture.

If your mass air flow sensor is bad it can cause your engine to either get too little fuel or too much fuel which can cause hard starting, engine stalling, rough idling, hesitation and even an increase in fuel consumption.

The most common symptoms of a bad mass airflow sensor on a vehicle is either the engine stalls shortly after starting or the engine hesitates or drags while under load or idle.

A good shop can use a tester on your vehicles computer to test for a bad mass airflow sensor.

You could still drive with a bad mass airflow sensor but I would recommend getting it checked out and replaced when you can because your engine will not have as great of performance as it should and you'll use more fuel.

Answer 2

A bad MAF sensor can cause too much fuel to be left in the combustion chamber, creating untimed detonations.

You'll experience this as poor drivability such as hesitations or sudden jerking motions, particularly during acceleration.

A bad MAF sensor can cause your vehicle to experience poor drivability issues such as engine stalling, jerking or hesitation during acceleration.

This could happen while speeding up on the highway on-ramp or cruising down a city street.

These issues can create dangerous situations causing accidents and injury.

A bad mass air flow sensor can cause problems such as engine hesitation, engine stalling, engine running rich, lack of power, poor accelerating, hard starting or no starting.

The mass air flow sensor controls the fuel to air mixture ratio and lets the computer know how much fuel to send through the injectors when it's needed.

The bad mass air flow sensor may cause too much fuel to get through the injectors and cause the engine to run too rich.

If you unplug the mass air flow sensor and the engine runs better then the mass air flow sensor is likely bad and needs replaced.

You could drive with a bad mass air flow sensor but it's not recommended to do so.

If you drive with a bad mass air flow sensor your car or vehicle will likely stall, run lean under load or run rich at idle and your vehicle will use more fuel and your engine will lose performance.

A proper working mass air flow sensor is essential to a properly running and fuel efficient engine.

Getting your mass air flow sensor replaced will make your car run much better, improve your fuel mileage and your car will have more horsepower as a result.