What faults will occur if the car's air flow meter is broken
2 Answers
Air flow meter failure can cause the engine to surge and intermittently stall. More extended information is as follows: Overview: Air flow meter failure leads to engine surging and intermittent stalling. In this situation, the vehicle's idle is normal, acceleration in place is normal, and driving at usual speeds is also normal. However, the above fault phenomena may only occur when the speed exceeds 120km/h. This fault may be caused by inaccurate signal output from the air flow meter at high speeds. Others: Air flow meter failure can cause the engine to emit black smoke and have high fuel consumption. Black smoke and high fuel consumption indicate that the injector's fuel injection volume is excessive and the engine's air-fuel mixture ratio is too rich. Since the air flow meter affects fuel injection, it can also lead to this fault. Under stable engine air intake conditions (no air leakage), the signal fluctuation of the air flow meter should be stable. If the signal frequency output by the flow meter is incorrect, for example, it should be 30-40Hz at idle but changes to 500Hz, then the corresponding fuel injection volume at this time would be 8ms (normally 2-3ms at idle), which means there is too much fuel in the air-fuel mixture.
I've been driving for twenty years, and if the mass air flow sensor goes bad, the car immediately starts showing all sorts of problems. As soon as you start it, the engine shakes violently, making the whole car body tremble. At idle, the RPM fluctuates up and down like it's dancing, which feels very unstable when driving. When accelerating, the throttle response is extremely slow—you can floor it, but the speed still won't pick up. On the highway, you can't even overtake properly, which is quite dangerous. Fuel consumption also skyrockets. Normally, it’s around 10 liters per 100 kilometers, but it can jump to 15 or 16, costing a lot more in fuel expenses each month. If the check engine light comes on, that’s a warning. If you don’t fix it, it could damage the catalytic converter, leading to even higher repair costs. My advice is to get it checked as soon as you notice an issue—fixing small problems early saves money and hassle.
