therafiman
Member
Registered: 2nd Aug 02
Location: Romford
User status: Offline
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I have a question about induction kits and airflow meters.
I have a 1.0 12v corsa b that i fitted with a k&n induction kit. It ran fine for about a year, and then after a service by Vauxhall it suddenly stopped running properly. Vauxhall said it was a broken airflow meter, and that the induction kit had sucked in so much air that it had caused it (?). I took it off, there were more problems afterwards, and basically i'm a bit suspicious of vauxhall's explanation, after a lot of money it's now finally running ok, and i've decided to look for a different garage.
Anyway i've had a look through the posts on this site and found other ppl having problems, some say the airflow meter gets dirty, others say the kit can damage it, and i've seen a lot of ppl have no problems.
The thing is, i'm left a bit unsure. Do i put my induction kit back on? Is it difficult to clean the airflow meter? Would it break the meter again? I'd rather sell it if it will - the sound is nice, but not worth the 300 quid for a new meter...
Any help would b appreciated.
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Joff
Member
Registered: 17th Oct 00
Location: Cambridgeshire
User status: Offline
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The airflow meter is not a serviceable part - don't get it wet or spray anything into it!
Airfilters themselves do not harm aif flow/air mass meters, all they do is let in more air.
Nine times out of ten, when an air flow meter fails and an induction kit has been fitted, the fault is due to oil or cleaning fluid getting onto the element of the meter and corroding.
This is one of the reasons why foam filters are so much easier to maintain than cotton-gauze, I know with the Pipercross cleaning kit, once the filter is rinsed and dry you just spray a fine amount of dirt retention additive on the outside of the filter, then re-fit to the car.
I'm assuming Ramair would be the same.
With cotton-gauze filters you need to lightly coat the pleats on the outside layer with the red oil and often the customer over-oils it, refits to the vehicle and small amounts of oil can find its way through into the air flow meter.
Other problems with "hot wire" air flow meters can occur where there is so much cool air flowing through the filter and past the meter, that it (the meter) burns itself out trying to heat itself to it's correct operating temperature.
The wire heats up to a set temperature then by measuring how cool the element gets, the system can determine the volume of oxygen in the intake.
Which is how I understand it anyway - corrections would be appreciated 
A hot wire air mass meter, yesterday.
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Joff
Member
Registered: 17th Oct 00
Location: Cambridgeshire
User status: Offline
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Oh, to answer your question...
Did Vauxhall service the air filter itself? Did they touch any part of the air intake system? If so, blame them. Probably.
Refit the standard airbox for a bit, with a Pipercross panel filter and give it a couple of months. Then re-fit a decent induction kit.
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therafiman
Member
Registered: 2nd Aug 02
Location: Romford
User status: Offline
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I'm not sure exactly what they serviced, they were pretty unhelpful (one time when i asked to see a problem they said there was, they told me it was under the engine and i couldn't see it - on getting home there was oil dripping out of the top of the engine...). They also changed a few things in the exhaust system, in fact they pointed out quite a few things wrong with it over a couple of months including a broken catalytic converter that they didn't seem to spot until after I'd taken it to them 3 or 4 times after it started rattling.
They may have touched the intake system when they were "tuning" it (after fitting the kit they said I hadn't reset the ECU even though I had), i wouldn't know because I didn't take it that time, someone else did for me.
The filter itself hadn't been re-oiled, and nothin else had been touched by me, i just replaced the old filter.
Could the meter really over-heat like that? After all it's only a little 1.0 litre engine and the kit is designed for it, i don't get how it could be sucking in such huge amounts of air, but then I guess I don't know enough about it.
I dunno about getting a new induction kit, not too many places I can find one for this engine. It's been running fine for a few months since the problems with the standard filter, I re-fitted the k&n kit today and it's been ok, I'm still uncertain about whether to leave it on or not though - if it was the meter burning out, is it likely to happen again?
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Joff
Member
Registered: 17th Oct 00
Location: Cambridgeshire
User status: Offline
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Any airflow meter can over-heat and burn itself out, it could be a fault in the system where it doesn't have a cutoff above a certain temperature.
The VX220 Turbo does the same - too much air flows and with the location of the air mass meter, takes in moisture which further cools the element too much resulting in the element burning out.
Even though the engine's quite small compared to others, the throttle body would still be sucking in a massive volume of air when at full throttle- which in some circumstances could keep the element chilled.
As for not being able to find an induction kit... Pipercross PK191 - available from all good auto accessory stores 
If you've already had a few problems with that dealer then it might be an idea to go somewhere else. If they're messing up other parts of the service...
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