Well... I put the new MAF on today as I discussed in my earlier thread. To my surprise the car started right up and had excellent idle - better than usual when it starts cold. At low RPM pulling out of the driveway and on to the street it felt responsive. Still good.

Then I out the peddle down to accelerate and it just dumped on its face like all of the power fell out and then it picked back up and dumped again - severe surging back and forth. Like someone driving with the gas and the brake at the same time. Even with the car warmer it still runs awful.

Any ideas? I am going to look over all of the suggestions that were given me in my last post.

Thanks in advance.

 

The reason your car idles better is because you have a MAF that is actually calibrated to read lower airflows properly. By removing the screens you will scew readings, but thats a whole other can of worms on this board

Check your MAF and MAF burnoff relay. What code were you getting???? Do you know where the MAF and MAF burnoff relay are for sure??? If you know and don't feel like spending the extra 30 bucks for both relays then switch the relays. You should now have set a different code. IE if you had a 36 before you should now have a 33 or 34. This should tell you which one is faulty. Personally I would just by the relays regardless and while I was at it I would pick up a fuel pump relay.
While you are doing this check your TPS like others have stated. Try doing a search on here for TPS setting and "Vader". Also do a search on the relays so you know what to expect. If you need to troubleshoot the entire MAF system do a search for it and "trickster". He (as well as others) has posted the schematic for tracking down the problem first so that money is not tossed away on parts that aren't needed.

 

 

I rarly post pics of the car I am talking about but here it is by the way - sometimes it helps to see what we are working on.

 

Sweet Car I've had numerous headachs with the TPI in my car and have fought the temptation to go carb every since. All my problems have been traced down to 3 things that all work together and if one of them's not funtioning rite then your in for a world of headachs and aggravation.
1. MAF and it's 2 relays.
You've already bought the most expensive part the MAF sensor itself. Go ahead and replace the two relays as well.
2. TPS. Check it and make sure it's working properly.
3. IAC. Same as TPS. Remove it and clean it as well as the IAC passages in the throttlebody. This should be a yearly routine for cars driven daily thruout the year.Kind of preventive maintanince.
Hope this helps and good luck finding the problem.

 

transambill,
Thanks for the reply. These cars are really cool no doubt. I have had this car for a year now and it has never really ran right. The problem is that nobody around where I live understands TPI. I have had to learn from this site and from books. I cannot undrstaqnd why codes have not shown up until now. I am actually encouraged though because I think I might be finaly gettting somewhere. I read yesterday Vaders stuff on the MAF and its relays and learned a lot. I am going to go ahead and get the relays and see what that does.

By the way, going to a different intake (not carb) - steath, super, mini - does this help eliminate any of the headaches of TPI - in other words is it more stable?

Thanks,

Tom

 

When you replace a TPI with something else you are really only changing how air is delivered to the heads. All sensors,ect are reused. By going to something else for an intake you will not get rid of these "headaches". Just keep reading and working on the car and it will all start to make sense.

 

Goodluck, my MAF car does not even move anymore. Replaced the MAF, ECM, relays, tps, coolant temp. and misc. other parts. Checked for vacumm leaks, injector resitance. Still cannot find it. Its now six month later.

Most MAF problems are never fixed. If you looked at a 100 maf posts on this board. Maybe 1 out of that 100 was able to find the problem. I have found experiened mechanics do not even want to work on these cars. My only advice. Remove the harness and ECM convert to speed den. or but in an aftermarket computer and injection system, or go carb.

 

Reagarding the last post of going to speed density or going with an aftermarket computer - is that what a lot of people do with these cars? Are these good options? It would be a smaller jump I think to go with speed density than going with an aftermarket rig. I do not want to go carb for sure - not against it - just want fuel injection.

I hope that it is not going to be that difficult to get this car to run right. Surely there are guys who have this setup working well?

 

Yeah there are a *FEW* people with MAF cars that do run from time to time. You need to tell everyone what codes you are setting. Have you done the TPS yet??? Have you checked realys??? Have you checked voltage to the MAf and output voltage from the MAF??? What have you done besides replace the MAF???? What mods have been done to the car???? Did you find the trouble shooting chart in these forums (TPI and Tech) for code 34????
By the way I have an 89 GTA that looks just like yours that runs 12's on a MAF. Yes I have had codes 34 and 36 before and both times thanks to TGO I was able to self diagnose the problem with advice from others here and I still have the original Bosch MAF from 1989....knock on wood

 

Razor - thanks for encouragement. Hopefully today I am going to get to all the things that you mentioned. My friend has a really cool snapon diagnostic reader that will reveal what codes are getting thrown. The other day when we threw it on the IAC was reading properly. When we run for codes we will check the relays and power to and from the MAF. My friend is the best guy in my area for anything electrical. I learn a lot from him. I will post soon when we get a clear reading. Thanks for all of the help - this is extremely valuable.

 

Just solved my SES code 33 problem by adjusting my TPS. I was at .54 closed but needed to adjust it so that I was above 4.0V open. Once I did that, the problem went away. So far so good. I chased this problem since April, and replaced the IAC, relays, connectors, etc. This seems to have done it though. I should probably sell the car before it comes back (J/K).

Kevin

Kevin