My car is a 96, is the OBD of this year able to see a bad MAF sensor and turn on the engine light?
How exactly would a bad MAF sensor cause the engine to run.... or not run?

Thanks

 

In OBD-II there are several codes for the MAF sensor:

P0100 = MAF system circuit malfunction (static frequency)
P0101 = MAF system performance (irrational flow number)
P0102 = MAF sensor circuit low frequency (below lower limit 1,000 Hz)
P0103 = MAF circuit high frequency (above upper limit 10,700Hz)

How it affects the engine depends on the specific problem - a dirty sensor can cause the engine to be fueled incorrectly, creating stumbling and surging. A total failure may shut the engine down, but in most cases a total failure will cause the PCM to default to speed-density mode, where the PCM ignores the MAF sensor and calculates the mass air flow from the RPM, IAT, MAP and the VE table.

 

If im throwing P0100 and P0103 is it likely that the mass air flow sensor is bad.

 

Key on, pull the connector off the MAF and check for 12V between the pink wire and the black/white wire. For some reason, the 97's have a habit of the pink wire for the MAF failing somewhere in the harness.