Air Flow Sensor, 2L petrol.

[Simon Jones]

It can be seen at the top of this photo:



The diagnostic socket is not standard OBD so you will struggle to find an off the shelf code reader. There is some downloadable software you can use, but you'd have to have a delve around on the forum for the name.

[GreenBongo]

You need to be careful with a K&N, too much oil on it contaminate the MAF.

[Simon Jones]

That's a point I hadn't considered, so a quick google on the matter suggests there is a lack of evidence to support this:

http://www.knfilters.com/MAF/massair.htm

[BongoBonkers]

Hi

Glad to hear you got a result. Could you possibly supply some information about where you got the part from and any part numbers and cost? Think I might have the same problem. Our van's been super slow on hills ever since we've owned it. I thought that's how they all were....?

Thanks

[dunslair]

Well the saga continues.

The van got us from Scotland to Font and back (South East of Paris), although I did notice it down on power from time to time, but I put it down to long motorway climbs fully loaded.

Anyway today we were up past Pitlochry at Killiecrankie, and had a very definite loss of power. Went to reverse out of our parking space and could not even muster enough revs to get the van moving. I eventually managed to get it to roll back enough to get out of the space, and only just managed to get it moving out of the car park. Once the revs picked up we managed to limp home to The Borders.

So £500 pounds spent on a new air flow sensor, and we don't appear any further forward.....

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated before I book it back in to the garage....?

p.s.


Also did a quick reconer on fuel consumption today.... not good, around 18 to 20mpg with no air hiss when cap removed?? (and that was going slowly)


Regards

David.

[Simon Jones]

Have you ruled out faults with ignition, injectors and petrol pump? Has the fuel filter been changed and have you taken a look at the plastic gauze filter in the tank? Other options include lambda sensor and petrol vapour control system.

I cleaned the MAF on my V6 today so will see if any different when I next take it out for a spin. Not expecting any change as everything was squeaky clean in the filter box and pipework.

[dunslair]

Thanks Simon. I will ask the question at the garage when I speak to them.
The other thought that popped into my head was that the inability to get the van moving could be something as simple as a seized brake, so will suggest we rule that out. I also noticed that the brakes were spongy yesterday after we had driven about 20 miles. Not sure if that was down to water or overheating, but it resulted in me needing to stop using the handbrake to avoid running into the back of a line of cars!! Also the van was driving on motorway inclines as if I was towing something heavy. It kept needing to drop down a gear just to keep us moving at 50 or 60mph.
We did a more accurate fuel calc today as well. The 160mile round trip we did yesterday (slowly) used 45 litres, which by our reckoning is 16miles per gallon. Ouch.
At this rate I may as well be driving a Rolls Royce Phantom.

Cheers

David.

[teenmal]

I would not rule out the possibility of sticking brakes, it would give the symptoms that you have mentioned, did you check for excessive heat on the wheels/hubs, it could be a fault with the master cylinder (ETC) intermittently not returning properly.

[dunslair]

Had a chat with our mechanic this morning, and the van is booked in to the garage on Wednesday. His immediate thought was just as you have said, which would have 'boiled' the brake fluid and caused the failure to work when we came to stop. To be honest I didn't take the time to check the wheels for either excessive heat or carbon. After the problems with the air flow sensor my thoughts just went back to that again.
I am keeping my fingers crossed for a simple fix!

cheers

David.

[dunslair]

Well just had a chat with our mechanic..... not good news. Brakes etc all fine, not binding etc, so no easy fix there.

Mechanic took it for a run and very quickly realized there was still a problem with the engine management side of things. The air flow sensor has been replaced, (and this cured a 'spike ' he was getting in his read out) but we are still getting a fault code (generic code I believe) PO102. (from his big fat book of faults)

The symptoms are.

Lack of power to pull away from standing still, or on an incline. (makes driving a bit of a no no.)
Very poor fuel economy (around 16mpg)
Loss of power when going up hill, or anything other than flat roads. (not even enough beans to get into our drive from standing start (on slight incline))
The engine appears to be revving OK when not in gear, but the mechanic thinks it only appears OK because there is no load on it.

The van is booked in next week to try and get to the bottom of it, but the mechanic has a list of things to check on the engine management side of things. He suggested it would be an idea to post on here to see if this is ringing any bells for somebody, before we start working down through the list.

Any thoughts / assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

David.

[GreenBongo]

P0102 is Mass Air Flow Sensor signal too low. The problem is that the ECU is not seeing a proper signal from the MAF, while that could be a bad MAF its just as likely to be a bad connection from the MAF to the ECU or no power to the MAF.
Does the light come on a key on? if it doesn't then its likely to be a bad connection. If it only comes on while driving then the ECU is determining that the reading is low based on readings from other sensors, its rare but not unknown for a fault code to be flagged as a result of a fault in another sensor which is why logging live data is important. Do you know what make the ECU is? given that information for Bongos is hard to come by you might get some idea by looking at service manuals for vehicles with a similar EFI system.

[GreenBongo]

Have you done a compression test? a bad engine will have low airflow.

[g8dhe]

Have you checked the Spark plugs and HT cables ? Its been frequently commented on for the V6 engines and I should imagine the leads will have a similar wear characteristic!

[GreenBongo]

An ignition fault should cause a misfire code P03xx rather than a MAF error. Is there any information published on the 2ltr EFI system? I don't think I've seen an FSM.

[helen&tony]

Hi
Symptoms sound POSSIBLY...and it's a long shot ... similar to an auto transmission problem. Bear with me, and I'll describe my thoughts:
When we came here, we were towing a caravan, and Bongo and caravan were highly overloaded, and I wasn't optimistic about making the journey.
We got to the campsite near the chunnel with only slight loss of power symptoms, but getting off the other end, it most definitely didn't like hills, and after such episode, it seemed to want more throttle than normal on a level, eventually even having to put my foot down on DOWNHILL stretches to keep it running....After a while, I twigged that it might be the auto trans overheating, so every so often I'd stop for a couple of hours, and it worked nicely, as it was February, and fudging cold. So....the journey was like this up hills, and through French, Swiss, Italian, Greek and Bulgarian mountain ranges...Frankly I expected the Bongo to fail, as we could only get 15 MPH in some areas
O.K. You may not have auto trans overheating, but IF, and it's a BIG IF, you can't trace an engine problem, A good flush of the autobox, refill with Forte autobox treatment, and fluid, run 50 miles, and dump the fluid, and refill with Forte plus new fluid , run , and pray?
Anyway, I dearly hope you find the problem!
Cheers
Helen