MAF problem?

[yoshi]

January 2007 I drove down to Sydney (just about a non-stop drive) and parked at my sisters house for about 2 hours, then drove to paramatta shopping centre to kill some time before a friend finished work. Drove over to the Ridges Paramatta and parked for about 5 mins, when we started up to drive over to her house, car wouldn't rev past around 2600 before a sudden j*rk (EDIT: censorship wins again). The next day the car worked fine.

On Sunday 25th January, I went out to the shops, parked the car for about 30 mins and when i started up, did the no high revs thing. I figured the MAF was dirty or something, bought some contact cleaner and cleaned it. next day when I went for a drive, it ws fine.

On Monday 9th Feb, same deal, but I was going to clean the MAF again the next day, the next day the car worked without issue.

I also noticed that I could get the revs higher than 2600 through downshifting, but not through accelleration. The MAF looked pretty clean.

What could be causing it to stop working intermittently? I figured condensation when I was in Sydney, as it was really humid in Brisbane and drove basically non-stop to Sydney, then it went bad, but next day worked fine. The one on 25th Jan was a really hot day and i though about heat being the cause, but the one on 9th Feb, wasnt a hot day, and I don't remember it being too hot in Sydney.

Any help would be much appreciated

[DJKOR]

One thing that can also cause that issue is the throttle position sensor. In most cases they essentially are a a potentiometer and can get a bit worn in some cases. Contact cleaner can sometimes help to clean it up. You will usually find it on the the side of the throttle butterfly valve.

[SuperDave]

2007

You've been musing over it for that long :P

If you had the stock air box I'd recommend checking the fin in the intake, but from memory you have a CAI?

Any CEL with the limp home mode?

[yoshi]

2007

You've been musing over it for that long :P

If you had the stock air box I'd recommend checking the fin in the intake, but from memory you have a CAI?

Any CEL with the limp home mode?

Only happenned once and rectified itself. now that its happenned twice in a few weeks, I am a bit more worried.

I have CAI, so no airbox for me.

CEL??

[DJKOR]

CEL??

Check Engine Light. Sometime also referred to as a MIL or Malfunction Indicator Light.

[yoshi]

Nope, I have never seen the light on

[jaybee]

Sounds like you picked up some dodgy fuel to me.

[yoshi]

Sounds like you picked up some dodgy fuel to me.

...But the problem solves itself without changing fuel.

Car is going in for a service tomorrow and I will raise the issue with them again now that it has done it twice since last service.

[jade]

I had a problem with my MAF sensor and the car would just cut out... It got to the point, when the car died the only way to get it home was to unplug the MAF sensor... WHEN THE MAF SENSOR IS UNPLUGGED YOU CANT REV THE CAR PAST ABOUT 2500 - 3000RPM.

I would suggest checking the plug that goes onto your sensor... Perhaps its not the cleaning of the sensor that is fixing the problem it is the unplugging and replugging of the sensor before and after cleaning ;)

[the_random_hero]

Sounds like something is causing your car to go into "limp" mode - hence the low rev limiter. I'd get your ECU scanned, see if any faults have been logged. The problem would have fixed itself, hence why the car is now running normally, but the error should still be stored in the ECU.

As above, MAF is also a good thing to check.

[yoshi]

Toyota checked my car yesterday, no errors logged in the ECU. They even tried cleaning it again...

I was told that it could be the ECU making mistakes that the MAF is sending the signal but the ECU not registering.