Lets talk MAFs

[Ibiza Dan]

Ok ive seen talk of people putting different MAFs on there cars like say putting one off a 2.0tdi on a 1.9tdi and this is supposed to aid performance ?
Im going to replace my MAF at some point in the near future, is it best to just get the part number off my current one and get the same again or is there a better one to use ?
Thanks for any knowledge or help on this subject.

 

[basssound]

I've heard of Mercedes Sprinter MAF sensor/housing fitted to the 1.9tdi but I don't know about any performance increase.

 

[MJ]

Sounds like b*llocks to me, ECUs are very sophisticated these days not like they used to be. If you go fitting parts to other cars that run different ecu programming it could cause all sorts of problems. I dare say that the MAF sensors on the 2 cars are probably almost the same part anyway (thats no garauntee that it'll work). If you wish to yield more performance from this sort of mod then the easiest (and safest) way of doing it is to fit a new MAF and get your car remapped.

 

[dholdi]

I would tend to agree with the above. A MAF is a sensor to determine the airflow to the engine and the ecu then fuels to suit. The only way I can think that a different MAF would aid performance would be if it was less restrictive to the air flowing past it, and I guess this would be insignificant.

 

[MJ]

The proccess of changing the MAF to increase performance (increase air flow, as mentioned above) probably stemmed from when people with the likes of ford zetec engines fitted bigger throttle pots (say a 2.0lt throttle pot onto a 1.6lt for example) and MAF sensors which the ECU would recognise and give a slight increase in power.
Unless someone has done this and proven it to yield a positive result i would steer well clear mate.

Or you could get another airflow meter - that of a tdi150 and fit the actual sensor of a tdi105 into the outer piping of the 150 giving you a bigger opening but the same sensor so it wouldnt cause a fault, you could then fit bigger intake piping - for example

 

[Viking]

The Mercedes MAF that people fit is a Pierrburg unit and is less problematic than the Bosch ones. Virtually bomb proof in comparison apparently, and it does give a slight increase in performance at a certain rev range. Not really significant but slight.

 

[MJ]

The Mercedes MAF that people fit is a Pierrburg unit and is less problematic than the Bosch ones. Virtually bomb proof in comparison apparently, and it does give a slight increase in performance at a certain rev range. Not really significant but slight.

Its unusual for Pierberg to produce a product more reliable than bosch. Pierberg normally produce quite problematic components - such as the electronic andti shudder valves on the later generation Pd tdi that fail and eventually stick open and cause a very unpleasent judder on switch off.

 

[sssstew]

yeah back a few years ago when there were literally loads of MAFs failing all the time people were trying different ones to try and get some reliability, it turned out the Merc MAFs were quite good (pierberg) so this was a common change on the old non PD TDIs. There are several threads about it in the TDI section, and many of them linked in the TDI FAQ at the top of the forum if you want to have a read.