What have you done to your car today?

Noticed a slight wobble at motorway speeds since I had my new tyres fitted. The steering wheel didn't shake but I could feel it through my arse so that lead me to believe one or both rear wheels were slightly unbalanced.

I called Event Tyres about it on Friday and they said "oh dear, no problem, we'll get someone out to sort it - is Monday convenient?" - the fitter arrived first thing yesterday morning, just as polite and professional as before, and he noted that the balancing on both rear wheels was slightly out.

Suffice to say it's now as smooth as butter at all speeds, and the increased grip with the new tyres, especially in the wet, has somewhat transformed the car. I'm also still very impressed with Event Tyres' service!
 
Atari said:
Does anyone know of a proper way of testing a MAF sensor? I've got symptoms which correlate to what I've read online as a MAF going bad, but I don't want to start throwing parts at the car until I'm sure I know what I'm dealing with.

In a nutshell, when I'm accelerating hard in my E46 and let off the accelerator a little, the car feels like it perks up for a split second almost as if it was was on a rubber band being released.

Forums are split between either a MAF going bad, and/or vacuum leaks - but I've checked the hoses (and actually replaced them not long ago with new BMW ones).
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It might be caused by the MAF just needing a bit of a clean.

In most cases, the MAF sensor is easily accessible. Just remove it, spray it with some electrical contact cleaner, then let it dry thoroughly and replace. As long as you don't touch the sensor wires inside it shouldn't cause any damage and it might improve or even fix the problem. For the sake of a 5 quid can of cleaner and say 30 minutes of your time, it's worth a shot.
 
Thanks gents, I've tried cleaning it with a liberal amount of electrical contact cleaner, it seemed to perk up for about a day before going back to it's usual lethargic self.


rodenal said:
You can measure the airflow (but obviously need to know what looks right) and I believe there is also a voltage reading you can do from mafs but this would be even more difficult I imagine

Take it you have no codes?
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I can see the live airflow readings in INPA I think, I just have no idea what normal readings should look like :p

I've tried the very scientific test of unplugging the MAF to force the car to run on its pre-defined maps, no change in performance (which I thought was odd).

Thanks for your help :)
 
here is the damage report from the garage : "Damage is two radiators and piping is damaged. Wiring loom is damaged. Engine tray is broken in half. Body damage on front."

All the people I know who have hit badgers have had similarly awful outcomes, walking brick walls! :D
 
I hit a badger once on a country lane, must have been going fairly quickly and had hardly any chance to hit the brakes because it dived out of a hedge right in front of me.

It cracked the bumper slightly and made the foglight trim fall out and shoot off down the road. I retrieved it and clipped it back in. That is all the damage it did. :p
 
All this talk about badgers has just reminded me of when I was driving very slowly down a narrow country lane a few years back.

Badger strolled out in front of me, so I said "oh look, there's a badger" and promptly drove into it. Was going so slow it didn't even knock it over, but gave my passengers plenty of entertainment :p
 
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Fitted this today after I got an Allen key (yes an Allen Key! :eek:) stuck in the tyre (in between the tread blocks).

Thanks to the trucker who stopped and assisted with changing the wheel. :)
 
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