Autozone MAF "deal" - don't bother

I don't get over here often, but I wanted to post up about the Autozone-branded MAFs being sold. Both online and in-store, Autozone shows a MAF with both a very reasonable price AND a lifetime warranty. Being a career sucker, I decided to give this a try - because a MAF with a lifetime warranty for a 996 owner is like free grease for life for Colonel Sanders. Anyway, the preceding sentence was by far the best part about the entire experience. The MAF comes installed in a housing that is not part of the factory airbox - so step 1 is to remove the thread-locked non-security Torx fasteners from the sensor so it can be installed in the 996 airbox. Issue two was slightly less immediately obvious: the wire retention clip for the Bosch MAF does not work with the Autozone MAF. On the proper Bosch part, the MAF is keyed so it can only be plugged into the harness in the proper direction. The Autozone part is not keyed, so you could presumably plug it in with the plug rotated 180 degrees. I don't know for certain this would cause an issue - but they're keyed for a reason, and I sure as heck don't want to be the guy who tries it reversed. To resolve this, it is necessary to NOT use the retaining clip - meaning the MAF has some greater chance of coming loose. I secured mine with tape during the brief period it was installed, but...it's janky. Issue three: This is obviously NOT just a Bosch part that has been tested and re-labeled - the housing is physically different, and as mentioned above, the wire connector has also been genericized, presumably to make it fit more applications. This sensor looks very different - i.e. non-Boschlike - compared to every other MAF, including the Porsche-supplied, parts from Bosch, and "no-name" refurbs which have always been anonymized Bosch units... Issue four: It didn't work for sh*t. After the standard MAF replacement protocols, including a battery reset to clear fuel trims and what should have been sufficient drive time to acclimatize to the new sensor data: the car ran like absolute garbage. Not since I had a wet, cracked passenger-side injector has my 996 run that poorly. I did not even bother reading any of the MAF values to see what the sensor was producing; by this time, I just wanted it out of my car. I spent some quality time with an old MAF and a can of electronics parts cleaner - what I should have done in the first place if I wanted a solution from Autozone. Based on these four observations, I have determined that the Autozone-branded MAF is quite clearly the work of the devil. TL;DR: Autozone sells a piece of plastic that you install in place of a real MAF, but it doesn't work.

Got any pics of this piece of Sh&t??

I gave up on anything from Autozone years ago. If it makes you feel better, they don’t discriminate. They have similar issues with Honda parts, almost nothing from them works as well as OEM.

Legit part at bottom, crap part @ top. Note that on the lower part, the keying for the plug is obvious; on the other part, all of the keying has been defeated. I confirmed that you can seat the MAF connector in either orientation with the Autozone part, which is pretty stinking unforgivable as far as electrical parts go. Legit part @ top, aftermarket part @ bottom.Note that the MAF body is actually keyed so it only fits in the intake in the correct orientation. It's the electrical connector that is not keyed properly. These two parts are being held in the same view - so they should be visually identical if there's any expectation that airflow across the new part would be consistent with airflow across the old part. I guess this is not important, at least in Autozone's design opinion. Marked with copper tape since the connector is NOT properly keyed. I also used this tape to secure the plug in the MAF sensor socket - the adhesive on this stuff is fantastic (but it IS conductive, so it's not appropriate for use around ANY exposed conductors). I rate this product one-half star out of nine hundred ninety six possible stars. The half-star is for the low price - everything else about it sucked.

One more photo - this is the new MAF as it arrived, complete with the useless housing and non-security Torx. The "thread locker," which is presumably to void the warranty if the sensor is removed from the housing, wiped right off. I have not yet attempted to return this turd, but I'm expecting some BS about how it shouldn't have been removed from the housing. Since it's physically impossible to install the part as packaged, and they list the '99 C4 as a compatible vehicle, we'll see how the return goes. It should be entertaining. For me.

It actually looks like it fits an Audi , they come with a housing that looks like that !!

I expect it will fit several different vehicles to get the price down. Everything in the kit is pretty decent quality except the sensor, which is a bit of a drag.

Thanks for posting this. I am glad I went with the Bosch unit last month. I was looking at this unit at the time.