Air Flow Meter

[last son kal-el]

Hey everyone. Quick question. Recently removed air flow meter- 78 280z

to change rubber hoses. I noticed inside has a lot of carbon buildup. Is there a way to clean inside?

[BuDavid]

I would say, manual cleaning.. carb. cleaner+tooth brush:)

but always keep the electronic board's side facing the top so you wont allow any dirt to sneak onto your electronic board..

just a thaught, I would do that, maybe others would hae better ideas.. good luck..

[TomoHawk]

There's a decarbonizing cleaner specifically made for throttle-bodies & air flow meter like yours. Kinda like carb spray.

[argniest]

Does that carbon really effect the AFM? Im just wondering. Because I have an old one (a JECS model) on my car and it runs a lot better with that one, than the new one that I bought (and I am of course looking into why that would be the case). But the old one definatley looks pretty black inside. Just wondering if cleaning it out is safe, and if it can really make any difference or not. I dont want to do anything that wouldnt really make a difference. It just gives me one more reason to screw something up. I aint no mechanic...but hey....if cleaning it can help things run closer to specs, then I would definately consider doing it.

Do you have a specific product name?

[sblake01]

I always tried to keep them clean. I used CRC 5078 Throttle Body and Air-Intake Cleaner. You can get that at most auto parts stores.

[BuDavid]

argniest,

from what I understand that the what so called vane flapper type AFM, the dirt wouldn't affect the reading of air flow so much in your case because it might be a difference in the calibration of each of those you have, dirt can affect the reading if it affects the moving parts such as the shaft that is holding the door (if becomes sticky it will restrict the rotation of the door then it will give lower readings or might get stuck in some positions)

if the air flow meter is equipped with an air temp. sensor then you can clean this too using electronics contact cleaner or something similar, when gets coated by dirt it will delay the temperature reading but I don't think that it will be so bad if it stays dirty.

newer types of flow meters which are Mass Air Flow meters do require cleaning more oftenly since they read air flow changes by measuring the change in current which is changed by heat dessipation by the air flow, in some of my friends BMW's we faced a lot of power fading and some hesitation which was solved only by cleaning and there was a noticeable change.

I'm not an expert in air flow meters, this is only what I understood and my opinions, so some of my information might be wrong.

[FastWoman]

Yeah, be gentle. Carbon isn't that big an issue. Oddly, carb cleaner can attack an adhesive used to seal the waffle side to the rest of the body (and might also attack a rotted O-ring around the idle mix screw). It doesn't attack the sealer TOO quickly, but does make it a bit of a gooey mess. I found that brake cleaner doesn't attack anything on the AFM but the dirt. I haven't tried throttle body cleaners.

Squirt some oil around the shaft when you're finished.