My 95 Z28 Camaro was having all the symptoms of a dirty MAF: bad acceleration, stalling, etc. I cleaned it but after 3 days or so the problems slowly came back.
Whats my next step?
should i just replace it?

 

Do you have a way of scanning while it's running? Normal signal goes up pretty evenly based on load/rpm.

Rich

 

Did you use MAS cleaner to clean it. If you have a stock setup and tune you can unplug pigtail at the MAS then start the car and it should run fairly decent in SD mode using the stock VE tables. That would prove it's the MAS. As said in post #2 would be nice to see a scanner of the AFGS signal from the MAS and also to see if any DTC's are posted, could be a wire problem, but that's hard to tell at this point.

 

No i dont..
but yes i did use a MAF cleaner. Im going to try today to unplug the MAF, see if it runs any better.
Yesterday while i was accelerating though, i did notice a whining sound and i also started smelling a burnt smell. I want to say antifreeze-y, not rubber or caramel.
Possibly a leaky hose dirtying the MAF sensor?

 

It don't think it will run at all w/o the MAF sensor.

Rich

 

If you start it up with the MAF then unplug it, and the idle quality doesn't change... wouldn't you be able to consider the MAF to be at fault?

 

Solo, If your VE tables are set up correctly then you should see a SES light, and PCM should switch to SD mode and continue on. Therefore idle still working correctly w/o MAF does not mean the MAF is defective or not working correctly. However if it idles crappy and hesitates w/MAF connected (MAF mode) and idles good w/o MAF (SD mode) then that indicates possible incorrect readings from MAF. I tried it out today on my '94 , while idling pulled MAF connector off, engine seemed to miss or hesitate for a fraction of a second then recovered back to normal idle speed running smoothly, the fans turned on and SES turned on. I restarted with MAF still disconnected, started right up and idled fine no miss or throttle hesitation, fans and SES were on. Shut it down, replugged MAF and restarted it, all went back to normal fans and SES went off. I did not attach DataMaster to verify the DTC or actually see SD mode on, but I assume that's what happened.