embarassing story/question
 

so,

in a hurry yesterday to get to my buddies house, I made a sandwich before I left to eat on the go.

I live off a dirt shale road so I was driving on that and bent down to pick up my sandwich and when I looked back up I mounted the shale wall that the neighbor put down to block water from entering his yard.

Now everything was right tight up against the bottom of the car and the two front wheels were basically off the ground. After we pushed it out, we noticed that once the car started, it'd go up to 2k RPM and shut off.

so I finally limped it back into my driveway and now it runs but not very well and it finally threw the code of: P0101, which is:

P0101 Mass or Volume Air Flow Circuit Range/Performance Problem

now my question is, isnt the MAF on top of the motor on the intake? How could that be damaged or what could I have hit underneath thats sending some bad air into the intake?

Im putting my car up on ramps now to get under it, any first ideas would be greatly appreciated to help me figure out whats going on.

thanks a lot,
-JayCress

check any wiring harness' under the car, also clean the maf as well, could have just gotten alot of dust that is covering it.

x2

what they said.
on another note i guess not being allowed to eat and drive will become a law soon also

You probably broke the intercooler or the plastic end of it. Got the same problem with the same code the only dif was that my intercooler broke due to higher psi's. Try disconnecting the maf plug from the intake and check if your car doesn't shut off! that will help you move your car to get it fix.

Has been in PA since before I got my license. It's not enforced at all though.

did not no that lol

Your intercooler/ charge piping is broke. You have a boost leak. That is all.

Agreed, I'd say intercooler broke.

alright thanks a lot guys, Ill check all of these things

also is the intercooler pressurized? so if it is broken Id have a boost leak through that?

Yeah it needs to hold pressure so any crack will leak and cause you to throw those codes. Check on both end tanks and pretty much everywhere on the intercooler.

Sorry to hear it.

Which side of the car did you hit on?

alright so my intercooler appears to be fine everywhere and so does the charge piping. My car running is running at -20 psi so I dont believe theres a leak.

and I pulled my MAF and the cars still running good.

any ideas on what do to next?

well if theres was a leak my gauge would say 0 psi right? its mechanical not electronic.. but its running at -20 now.

and I ran off the road on the right side.. and basically it was stuck sitting basically at the engine bay

wait a minute.... -20psi?

thats vacuum your reading if im not mistaken. Theres no pressure there. -20 in Hg is what that is.
That tells you nothing important for finding out if you have a boost leak. CEL still on? Unhook the battery in the trunk and reconnect it. CEl will go away. Try flooring it briefly and see if you are making less boost. Its not a good idea but it will tell you quickly that you have a boost leak.

You have a boost leak. You might not see the massive crack on the Intercooler but there is strong potential for it to be there based on your story. What about the condensation bar under the intercooler? Also check the vac line coming out of the lower charge pipe.

No. It wouldnt say anything about a boost leak. Vacuum is vacuum... air being sucked in. The sensor that reads boost and vacuum will be the MAP sensors. they will see the vacuum. And wrong, the boost guage is electric not mechanical.

alright Ill try that when I take it off the ramps.

also I have an after market mechanical boost gauge not stock electronic..

Hey what kind of sammich was it?

a REAL good BLT..

possibly worth all of this hassle..

alright, that wasnt in the OP. lol. Why'd you go with a mechanical if you dont mind me asking?

The car won't hold as much boost under full throttle and if you had a way to scan it you would see crazy fuel trims. That's how i found out mine was leaking. Oh and the jet engine sound coming from the charge pipe that came off :lol:

I just like the immediate response from the mechanical ones, also the fact that its dead on true. Doesnt have a computer sending the signals to the gauge, you know?

well I a interceptor scan gauge.. does that do fuel trims? if so what is normal? or do you mean A/F ratios?

and yeah I had a charge pipe blow of my turbo before bc it was tightened correctly. I know what you mean, it sounded like I had a converted big turbo supra when I rhomped on it

If you have an interceptor watch your fuel trims LTFT and STFT. Normal should be within 5% of 0. Your LTFT so get furthur and furthur from 0 if you have a leak.

right if you have an interceptor you should be good to go.

LTFT and STFT are the fuel trims. set it up so it reads that. I think there is b1 LTFT and b2 LTFT. You want b1 LTFT and b1 STFT if its an option.

b1 means bank 1. For a V8, there are two "banks". b1 and b2. each measure both 4-1 headers. That way you could pin point which cylinder is acting up... or at least what side.

Your LTFT's should be between +5.0 and -5.0.... You get a CEL if you hit -18.0 or +18.0...

or somewhere near there. Let us know what your fuel trims are. I believe if you have a boost leak they should be extremely negative.

alright thanks a lot

Ill start the car and let you know what they read out

if you already reset the ECU then the fuel trims will reset to 0.0 just to let you know. They wont show and numbers till after the cold start stops. You will see the STFTs fluctuate a bit and bounce around but average should be near that range mentioned earlier. The LTFTs is the average (dont know if its time or distance related to STFTs.)

Should your LTFTs read 0.0. just drive the car around for 5-10 minutes and see where they go. Give it some gas so you just start getting into boost (maybe 3-5psi) and then you should see the jump in the fuel trims and eventually a CEL.