dvs_dave

So I had some MAF cleaner on the garage shelf and thought I'd give the A8 a blast of it as I'm not sure it's ever been done in its 12 years and 80k miles of life.

I pulled out the MAF and it looked pretty clean, but under bright light I could see a very fine dust coating on the various sensors in there (presumably the hot wire, and the inlet temp sensor). Anyway, though what the hell, and gave it a good blast of MAF cleaner and put it back together.

Didn't expect there to be any noticeable difference, but lo and behold there was. The car is noticeably smoother at light throttle openings, particularly gear changes. I'm guessing the ECU now has better throttle authority now that the MAF is giving more accurate readings due to it being clean and responding quicker.

Anyway, moral of the story, give your MAF a blast of cleaner to keep things nicely in tune.

mishar

I believe you will get a better millage too.

Shark_V8

Thanks for the report. Will add to list on this upcoming oil change. I did notice quite a bit of fine dust in and around a V70R MAF that I put on EBAY. They are supposed to have a burn off sequence, but nothing beats a good cleaning I guess.

dvs_dave

I took the car on a 150 mile highway trip today and the fuel consumption was considerably better. I was not dawdling either with the cruise set at 85 leptons most of the way. After a fill up, the range estimator was showing 640 miles! I know the accuracy of them is questionable, but I've never seen it show much over 500 miles before.

And the drivetrain is definitely smoother, so it's not my imagination

tenspeed

Don't ever touch that MAF wire with anything but cleaner. They break easy and cost big bucks to replace.

richard-tx

If you use ethanol free gas, you will gain 10-20% higher mileage too.

ooeddym

+1

mishar

That would be compared to 100% ethanol. How much ethanol is actually there?

ooeddym

Actually here in Oregon is 10% Ethanol and that's about how much your mileage drops.

mishar

That would be if it is 10% of water. Ethanol has 20% less energy than gas, so 20% x 10% = 2%. That doesn't count higher octane value of ethanol that will improve millage a bit.