MattB
10-14-2007, 09:51 PM
If this has already been discussed, my bad, but if not, here ya go. Just from my own personal experience.
Ok, with the help of some write ups and some Aussies I was able to repair m broken MAF sensor in the rb20. its the same for all RB series MAf's (same for my z31 maf as well)and a friend tells me its the same for the KA series too, so I'm assuming its the same if not close to the same procedure on most Nissan MAF sensors. This is just a common issue it seems with the mafs and may not fix your problem depending on what the issue is with the maf, like I said its just a common thing.
Now with the engines from common Nissan engine swaps approaching their 10th Birthday, things tend to get old, break etc etc. Nissan owners are very familiar with this. But instead of spending upwards of $100 on a new(new to you anyway) MAF sensor, maybe, just maybe you can fix it. The Problem lies inside the maf itself. what my issue was is the solder. after so many years it got old and cracked, in some cases leaving no contact between connectors at all. Making the problem itself hard to diagnose as if you have vibration in your engine bay, the contacts could be touching every now and then making you believe that the maf itself is not the issue(like me...) But we all know what a bad connection leads to...
Im going to skip some steps as I will just assume most of us on these forums can remove a maf sensor and use a knife without pictures. If you cant, you probably dont need to be using a hot soldering iron anyways.
Supplies Needed
1 broken maf
Solder wire(made for electrical applications..duh)
soldering iron(also duh)
silicon or something to seal lid back once completed( I used black rtv, seems to work)
whatever tools you need to remove maf from car/filter
knife/sharp object to cut silicon on lid(but not yourself, d@mn emo kids...)
Step 1: unhook maf sensor connection
Step 2: remove maf from car(assuming you know how to remove your air filter/box/wahtever you have)
Step 3: you are going to remove the lid on top of the maf sensor, its square and held on by some sort of silicon or something. whatever, just cut it and pop the top off.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/vg30etz31/MVC_537F.jpg
inside you will find this: this is where the soldering comes into play, put some solder in the areas I have marked. Don't worry about old solder, mine just burnt off anyway. I am not sure what the 5th connector is for, as it has no internal connections and therefor needs no solder, it wasnt from the factory apparently so yeah.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/vg30etz31/mafrepair.jpg
Try not to get one spot too hot, not sure what kind of damage you can do but I would just assume you can/will. Once you've soldered every thing back up, maybe blow the inside out with compressed air if you'd like, and replace lid and make sure you seal it with silicon or something. Im sure moisture is not good for the insides of a maf.
reinstall in car and hope you did everything right/this was your issue.
Hope this works for some of you guys instead of buying mafs you may not need(unless you were upgrading anyway, then oh well you may need know this sometime soon anyway)
oh and if you screw this up/injure yourself/whatever trouble you can cause, dont blame me, this is just a suggestion. Hell, throw a couple reps at me if this is helpful
Ok, with the help of some write ups and some Aussies I was able to repair m broken MAF sensor in the rb20. its the same for all RB series MAf's (same for my z31 maf as well)and a friend tells me its the same for the KA series too, so I'm assuming its the same if not close to the same procedure on most Nissan MAF sensors. This is just a common issue it seems with the mafs and may not fix your problem depending on what the issue is with the maf, like I said its just a common thing.
Now with the engines from common Nissan engine swaps approaching their 10th Birthday, things tend to get old, break etc etc. Nissan owners are very familiar with this. But instead of spending upwards of $100 on a new(new to you anyway) MAF sensor, maybe, just maybe you can fix it. The Problem lies inside the maf itself. what my issue was is the solder. after so many years it got old and cracked, in some cases leaving no contact between connectors at all. Making the problem itself hard to diagnose as if you have vibration in your engine bay, the contacts could be touching every now and then making you believe that the maf itself is not the issue(like me...) But we all know what a bad connection leads to...
Im going to skip some steps as I will just assume most of us on these forums can remove a maf sensor and use a knife without pictures. If you cant, you probably dont need to be using a hot soldering iron anyways.
Supplies Needed
1 broken maf
Solder wire(made for electrical applications..duh)
soldering iron(also duh)
silicon or something to seal lid back once completed( I used black rtv, seems to work)
whatever tools you need to remove maf from car/filter
knife/sharp object to cut silicon on lid(but not yourself, d@mn emo kids...)
Step 1: unhook maf sensor connection
Step 2: remove maf from car(assuming you know how to remove your air filter/box/wahtever you have)
Step 3: you are going to remove the lid on top of the maf sensor, its square and held on by some sort of silicon or something. whatever, just cut it and pop the top off.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/vg30etz31/MVC_537F.jpg
inside you will find this: this is where the soldering comes into play, put some solder in the areas I have marked. Don't worry about old solder, mine just burnt off anyway. I am not sure what the 5th connector is for, as it has no internal connections and therefor needs no solder, it wasnt from the factory apparently so yeah.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c73/vg30etz31/mafrepair.jpg
Try not to get one spot too hot, not sure what kind of damage you can do but I would just assume you can/will. Once you've soldered every thing back up, maybe blow the inside out with compressed air if you'd like, and replace lid and make sure you seal it with silicon or something. Im sure moisture is not good for the insides of a maf.
reinstall in car and hope you did everything right/this was your issue.
Hope this works for some of you guys instead of buying mafs you may not need(unless you were upgrading anyway, then oh well you may need know this sometime soon anyway)
oh and if you screw this up/injure yourself/whatever trouble you can cause, dont blame me, this is just a suggestion. Hell, throw a couple reps at me if this is helpful