Rocking out with ur MAF out

[rusty_sojah]

so had my car scanned yesterday after it started going into EML mode whenever I tried to give it some throttle and three errors came up all MAF related.

On the way home I stopped and unplugged the MAF sensor and now the car runs like a champ. I was concerned at first about driving with the MAF unplugged but the more and more reading on lots of different BMW forums I did it seems like there is a preset MAF configuration that the car uses if the MAF sensor is unplugged or MAF is broken. I'm assuming the hard coded static configs it is using are just an average based off some average temp/humidity/fuel mixture/driving conditions. but all I know is that my car hasn't been this fast in a long time. I also happened to take apart the disa and fuel controller valve and clean the years of nasty buildup in there, plus I reset all of the cars computers at the same time, and am running on just a few month old plugs/coils.

all in all the car is running great now and I watched my average km per liter go up from 7.1 (my previous averages over the past couple years of my driving) to 8.4 while driving much more spiritedly in the last 100 km's.

have you all ever experienced any ill effects from driving around with the MAF unplugged or can anyone give me a different insight into this. thanks,

[pokeybritches]

The car won't run optimally, but unless you're in an extreme climate or the coolant temp is cold, you probably won't notice.

The MAF sensor has a temperature sensor incorporated into it. When the MAF is unplugged, the car utilizes the coolant temp sensor for fuel calculations. I'm not certain if it brings the onboard computer's outside air temp into the fuel calculations. I do know that on cold starts in cooler temps, the car can suddenly stall and go into limp mode, which is dangerous.

I don't advise driving around for an extended period with the MAF unplugged. The car is essentially "running blind", and it has to use throttle position to determine load, similar to alpha-n tuning on the Z4M. The standard fuel maps have to be conservative, so you lose out on power and efficiency. The MAF is a wear item that typically lasts 8-10 years depending on mileage, so I'd just replace it. That said, I've driven 500+ miles with the MAF unplugged and the engine didn't blow up. The only adverse effects I experienced was cold start stalling.

[rusty_sojah]

thanks for the reply and the reassurances. I drove the car around all weekend and actually watched the mpg (km/L) go up to 10.4 (24 mpg) at one point on a long slow 60 km/h single lane road, before settling back down to 23 mpg where it is now. still much better than the 17 mpg's I had been averaging for the last couple years.

my second gear doesn't seem like it pulls as hard as it used to in the higher rpm's but now I feel like my 3rd gear is actually pulling harder than before so a slight tradeoff prolly due to some science.

I will most likely be selling the car in about 8 months when my time to depart this island is coming up so I'm not sure paying $500 for a MAF at this time is a good return on investment. the car itself is probably only worth around $7k presently so maybe I will just see how this all plays out.

[pokeybritches]

If you want to go cheap: https://www.ecstuning.com/b-mtc-part...627566984~mtc/

Or

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-vdo-part...627566984~vdo/

Your mileage probably improved because your other sensor was giving faulty readings (bad info is worse than no info).