[Muz]

From what I read they are a must avoid. I had some problems with my Phase 1 over the last couple of months which seemed to point at a potential MAF problem. I saw one on ebay with a Bosch part no a couple of weeks ago for £31.00 delivered and bought it. I then realised that I had bought a copy as the ad just gave the Bosch and Alfa part nos but made no pretence at being an original. Having been quoted over £300 by Mangoletsi and more than £150 at one other place for a CF1 engined MAF, I shrugged and accepted that I had probably just wasted my money.

When I came to fit the MAF it became apparent on close inspection that the air intake pipe had a couple of well hidden but large splits in the concertined section, which were almost certainly the cause of the hesitation I'd put down to the MAF. Thanks to help received on here I sourced a new air intake. When it arrived I decided to try it with the cheap copy MAF and after 100 odd miles the car is running brilliantly.

So after my long ramble the question is, if these cheap (probably Chinese made) MAFs are rubbish, when does it become apparent or do they either work or don't from day 1? I still have the old MAF which may or may not be OK as a back up so intend to run the car as is and see what happens unless some knowledgeable person on here tells me I could be damaging something?

 

[itacarboy]

If it's running fine can't see why it would be a problem,
but I have used a copy maf before and car played up worse than a broken maf, you would seriosly notice if it was no good for the car

 

[symon]

It might also appear to run fine but fail the emissions on the MOT.

 

[itacarboy]

Symon you beat me to that was about to do an edit ha ha

 

[perksy]

TBH if its running ok I wouldn't worry too much. If you're worried about emissions maybe pop it into a local MOT station and I bet they'd do a quick check if you bung them a few quid.

I bet all the MAFs (genuine or not) are all made in China anyway but hold onto your receipt just incase somehting does go wrong.

James

 

[Francophile69]

If you do buy one from EB spares...order the one for a 146, same part number as one for Spider, (talking CV1 here) but cheaper for some reason.

 

[FoxtrotOscar]

Ebay MAF's look pretty convincing, but they are rubbish.
If you want to know the differences, take them apart and have a look!
Generally they make the car run richer than it should, and although the lambda sensor will compensate to a certain extent, you're asking for trouble.

 

[perksy]

Muz - If you change your mind about using the Ebay MAF then drop me a PM and I'll take it off your hands. My car exhibits MAF-type running issues and I could do with substitiuting in a known-good MAF just to see if thats it.

James

 

[olliematthews]

I too had this same issue about six months ago. I had a split pipe as well as an old nacked MAF sensor. I replaced the pipe with a genuine one from Alfa (£££££ Ouch) and bought a LUCAS replacement MAF sensor from Panks. It worked fine to start with, WELL, what I thought was an improvement!!

The way I noticed it wasn't working correctly was by fitting a genuine Bosch part from a Vectra V6 believe it or not. They are the exact same MAF sensor but are given different codes as the plastic piping part that comes with them are different. Anyway, tried it and it ran much smoother with less idle movement when coming to a stop. The major difference between the two was on re-application of the throttle from letting off whilst on the move. When re-applying I would get a 'judder', as if the engine wasn't able to assess what to do quickly enough. Anyway, all sorted. Stick to Bosch if you can.

 

[groovylee]

ollie, any chance of the part number for the vectra MAF you used? and also, is your spider a 2.0 TS or a 3.0 V6?

cheers.