Car Dies/Mass Air Question

[94MustangGT5.0]

This past weekend I had trouble with my car wanting to die when I put it in gear. The RPM's would fall, the car would surge for a moment, then just die. It did this for about 5 starts then was fine. Well, I popped the hood and unplugged my mass air with the car running, and nothing happened? I had remembered doing this before after and the car imediately started running rough. However, this time nothing changed. I reved it up and still noticed nothing different, not appearing to be running lean or rich. My question is this: Shouldn't the car have started running rough or even died when I unplugged the mass air? Can anyone else unplug theres and not even hear a change in idle or anything? Just wondering if something might be wrong because it seems as though my car runs like the old speed density cars and doesn't even need a mass air meter right now. I know this isn't necessarily a bad thing that my car doesn't die when I unplug it, just wondered why this would be. Thanks in advance.

 

[DoHcHoLlIdAy01]

If you have had the Pro-M on there for a while and you have a K&N you might want to spray the MAFS with carb cleaner.

 

[CManT1914]

I know when my MAF fell off a couple weeks ago (if you have an AFM powerpipe, you'd understand), it wouldn't die or run like crap right away. It took about 10 seconds or so. Then later when I started it with the MAF still off, it would sometimes run decent enough to drive around the block (don't ask me why I tried this, lol). Good luck
-Chris

 

[legalize420]

i know when mine is unpluged the check engine light comes on. could it be a charging issue?

 

[mo_dingo]

This past weekend I had trouble with my car wanting to die when I put it in gear. The RPM's would fall, the car would surge for a moment, then just die. It did this for about 5 starts then was fine. Well, I popped the hood and unplugged my mass air with the car running, and nothing happened? I had remembered doing this before after and the car imediately started running rough. However, this time nothing changed. I reved it up and still noticed nothing different, not appearing to be running lean or rich. My question is this: Shouldn't the car have started running rough or even died when I unplugged the mass air? Can anyone else unplug theres and not even hear a change in idle or anything? Just wondering if something might be wrong because it seems as though my car runs like the old speed density cars and doesn't even need a mass air meter right now. I know this isn't necessarily a bad thing that my car doesn't die when I unplug it, just wondered why this would be. Thanks in advance.

Lets clear a few things up. The mass air controls the a/f ratio for only a couple minutes after startup. This gives the O2's time to heat up and start working.

If the car starts to clear up after a few minutes, it's definately a MAF/ECT/IAT problem. Likely you have an oiled filter and need to clean the MAF sensor.

Take the 2 t-20 (or t-25) safety torx headed screws off of the MAF sensor element and carefully seperate the sensor from the housing. Clean the two resistors with a q-tip and alcohol and let dry.
Scott