Thread: Update on $30 TD5 MAF

Good to hear.
I think I said earlier too .. bro's $30 cheapie still going.
Near on 2 years now(maybe 18months) .. can't really remember other than it was one of the first issues that we sorted out.

Can't remember what the Nanocom readings were exactly on his, but I do remember within spec, way back then when we did check lots of stuff due to other issues.
(those other issues were nothing to do with the cheap AFM, but were a combo of injector harness and eventually injector seals).

I guess the common sense thing to do too tho is to have a backup/spare. At $30 it's not a huge amount of $s, and you know that they can work well .. question is for how long?

Do not missunderstand, I am not against cheap parts and yes if you are lucky it can be as good as the genuine one. But, it is my personal experience, even the nanaocom shows good values it does not mean that the MAF functioning perfectly. I had an italian made which seemed to be perfect according to nanocom, but the car was not so good on low rpms. Finally I have changed it to genuine one, and even the nanocom showed very similar values, my car started to drive much better, smoother and the fuel consumption has decreased by about 1l/100km.
but again, this is just my expereince....

Originally Posted by laslo71

..... But, it is my personal experience, even the nanaocom shows good values it does not mean that the MAF functioning perfectly. I had an italian made which seemed to be perfect according to nanocom, but the car was not so good on low rpms. .....

Yeah, this is the issue .. 'the unknown'
And because of that, it makes you paranoid without justification for it.

What happend with bro's TD5.
not running so good, first suspect was possible MAF.
So he changed it(with the cheapie) and sorted it. Back then, no Nanocom, but the MAF change made the D2 drive better.
Then anotherrssue cropped up(this in the end turned out to be injector harness and seals), but back then we had no Nanocom.
So (me)suspecting it's probably the cheapie $30 MAF he got of ebay, advised to get a genuine MAF. Fitted, but no change.
So now he has 1 Genuine(kept as the spare for when the cheapie breaks down), but I told him to run the cheapie till it dies ... two years ago.

Once Nanocom was received(maybe a month or so later) I asked him to check the MAF(s) against each other.

Personally it if were mine, I'd be doing regular checks on the MAF(say every couple of months .. maybe 6!) ... see if it degrades slowly over time/usage .. or if it does break, is it quickly.

Really IMHO the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Mine currently goes perfectly with AFAIK perfect gearchanges.
No dropping out at high revs

as my first MAF did

although I don't explore high revs too often when towing .

If I detect some difference in performance I will immediately go back to my VDO. It is interesting that the Chinese MAF seems to give better gearchanges than the VDO when cold.
Regards Philip A