Hi everyone,
The other weekend I was driving my '06 CS at a track day at Mallala Motorsport Park, South Australia. The car was in excellent form, albeit running on some fairly well worn Yokohama A048s which have since been replaced.
Anyway, on my last lap of untimed practice, the car suddenly lost power in second gear, and a warning message alluminated teling me to "CHECK ENGINE". Not the best thing to read when in the middle of a track day!
When I got off the track, I spoke to my mechanic and he came for a drive with me to see how the car felt. It felt alright and I timed myself on a 0-100kmh run (0-60mph) and the car still did a 5.7 so there didn't appear to be any major problems with the car. The mechanic said that the car had probably sorted itself out and that it should be fine to kep racing, but to watch the temperatures, etc.
The car was excellent during the following timed practice session, running very competitive times. It was when I started the car up to line-up for the first set of sprinting laps that i noticed that the car expelled huge amounts of smoke from the exhaust - much more than ever before. As I reversed out of the pit garage I revved the engine slightly (only to around 3000rpm), and the engine made a single "popping" noise. After this, it returned to a very spluttery idle at around 400rpm.
I found my mechanic immediately and he told me that it was probably the Air Flow Sensor malfunctioning.
After several minutes of removing the trim and metal casing around the engine bay, he got into the engine. He temporarily fixed the air filter sensor but whilst inspecting the engine, saw that two or three clamps were not tight. As no work has ben done on the engine aftermarket, it almost definitely came from the factory like this.
As I said, the Air Flow Sensor was temporarily fixed, but the mechanic was hesitant about me racing it for the rest of the day. As you should always do, I made the best of a bad situation, and dual-entered the rest of the day in my Dad's 997 GT3. Not a bad trade-off! When I have a spare minute or two I'll post my thoughts and a quick comparison of the two cars in "Cayman Competition".
I was just wondering if anyone had experienced this same problem with their Air Flow Sensor before. I would be interested to hear if anyone has, and if so whether it came to light on the track or the road.
Happy Cayman-ing!
Ollie.
I don't recall anyone reporting a problem with the mass air flow sensor in the Cayman, but like any part occassionally one might go bad. In the 986 Boxster days several went bad when people used aftermarket air filters that were pre-oiled with too much oil and that oil came off and went downstream and clogged up the MAF, but so far I haven't heard of anyone having that problem yet either.
How did your mechanic "temporarily fix" your Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor? Did he remove it and clean it, or did he just fiddle with it inside the engine compartment?
I've never heard of a temporary fix for a MAF, beyond a simple cleaning. Usually, they either work or they're trash.
If the sensor is loose, you may be able to just tighten the clamps. If the housing is cracked or the sensor element is damaged/dirty/oil coated, you'll have to get a new one.
I recently had a MAF "failure" while tracking the CS. Big KABOOM, and the engine quit completely. Got the CS towed to the dealership, and was told that it was a MAF sensor failure. I was expecting something worse than that given teh way it went, but the sensor was replaced, and all is normal - except for an intermittant "Check Engine Visit Workshop" light. I've been on the track once since the MAF sensor was replaced and no problems (even with the CEL light on). I'ts going back to the dealership next week to get the CEL checked out.
Thanks for that guys.
In answer to you Bill, I'm not sure exactly what he did, but I think it involved cleaning it and tightening up tha clamps.
All is good now. Hope to get back on the track soon!
I too have had my Air Mass Sensor replaced. Whilst troubleshooting a problem with idling, they detected a strange intake temperature, and replaced it. Funnily enough my car pops through the intake all the time, mostly between first and second on hard acceleration. Porsche say it is due to the Milltek Exhaust. Interesting....
I have Milltek, what a load of waffle.
