Best fiver I've ever spent on the puma...

[EvilDonut]

I bought a can of Wynn's carb cleaner for use on the puma's MAF sensor wires, as I'd read in a few places that it can improve things if the MAF is dirty.

When I took the MAF out and had a look, one of the two wires was pretty brown, but the other was fine. After three or four bursts of the carb cleaner both wires were looking shiny. So I re-installed the MAF and took off the negative battery lead for 30 mins to reset the ECU.

Usually in the first 10 mins of driving, the puma is a bit jumpy - especially in first gear. However, as soon as I started it up thismorning and set off, I noticed that this problem had completely gone! So looks like it was caused by incorrect MAF readings (presumably it has some kind of warmup phase and the dirty wire meant it didn't get good readings during this warmup?). For the rest of the journey I noticed it feel slightly more responsive and it definitely idled better and coasted better (when I put the clutch down whilst travelling at speed it used to come close to stalling and just generally be a bit jerky - that problem has now gone).

Now obviously this cleaning would do nothing for people unless their MAF is quite dirty too - but I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who's not tried it before, as its only a fiver and can restore lost performance!

 

[expatscot]

I have a can of this kicking about, so will get it out and give my MAF a squirt..... (ohhh err, matron).

 

[shauns-puma]

i am new to pumas where is the MAF to
thanks shaun

 

[Marcus000]

It is the part between the air filter and the throttle body.

 

[shauns-puma]

8) thanks

 

[yippeekiay]

No it isn't Marcus!!!

It's between the airbox that HOLDS the air filter, and the air pipe GOING to the throttle body

 

[Marcus000]

Pedantic so & so!

 

[yippeekiay]

Hehe, couldn't resist.

 

[jasper65]

May well be what my puma needs? starting from cold without touching the throttle it revs pretty high at start up for a second or two and settles down to 1500RPM before slowly dropping down below 1000RPM. It also sometimes for no aparant reason decides to flood itself and need cranking over a while before it clears and fires! I do nothing different it just has a mind of its own.

 

[yippeekiay]

Jasper, give the fuel pump a few seconds to prime before starting EVERYTIME you start the car, even after short trips and you shouldn't have to press the pedal when starting which may be why your flooding it. Also, cleaning the MAF and the valve/edges inside the throttle body will help your idling if they're dirty. Both mine were manky as hell but once cleaned there is a noticeable improvement.

All the above are silly problems that the Puma is known for that are solved with very little work

 

[jasper65]

Much apreciated Yippeekiay k:. Got myself some Carb cleaner off Ebay the other week but never got round to useing it, I'll give the above mentioned parts a clean tomorrow which will hopefully help....

 

[plezz]

this sounds a little bit similar to a problem i'm having with mine and wondered if this is what i need before i open a new thread and look like a noob..

this happens in most gears but i've noticed it most in 3rd...

when i'm in 3rd gear and my speed drops to about 25mph (cant remember the revs) it starts to jerk as if the engine is about to stall, by the time my speed gets to about 20mph the car jerks like mad and i have to either go down to 2nd, or put some throttle on and it seems to run smoother again.

it might be a noob mistake, but my focus would easily handle 15-20mph in third gear without any jerking or seeming like it was about to stall (not that i drive around in 3rd at that speed!)

does anythink this may sound like a dirty MAF issue, is it normal behaviour for a puma, or maybe something else altogether?

 

[starfire27]

Cleaned my MAF today using some of this

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=30056" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


Has made a BIG difference, now pulls like a train after 4k where as before it was a little breathless.

Well worth £3.79

 

[beko1987]

I can highly recommend this.

I went to Maplin and bought the tin of Contact Cleaner, and a tin of Spray Sealant.

I had the same symptoms as above, when I started the car it would go straight to about 18k, the fall slowly. I also noticed a few nights ago that it was idling very lumpily.

A few befores...(Car's done 102,3something miles, the thing's probably NEVER been touched.

Yummy! After some WD-40 the jubilee clips started to turn. I pulled the hose from the Air Flow thingy, but could not get it from the MAF sensor housing, so took the lid off the air filter housing and bought the whole thing into the garage.

Close up.

The airbox lid was nice and clean! BTW, what's the box plastic welded to the lid for?

The jubilee clips had a rub down with Auto Glym metal polish and 00 grade wire wool. Some may say OCD, I say that combined with the grease I put around the rubbers at the end it will make them last another 10 years!

The MAF sensor housing. Used my new phone for the pics, and a few pics messed up, as thi one, where you can't see the sensor wires

A slightly better one of the wires.

The side of the housing that sits inside the airbox lid! Probably not very airtight now!

Receiving hole in the air filer housing. This was cleaned with APC and a few microfibres, then rubbed over with oo wool to remove any pitting. I then sprayed the silicone sealant around the plastic. It dried slightly waxy, good stuff!

Cleaned Sensor and Housing. Sprayed the contact cleaner everywhere until it was dripping out. Turned it around and sprayed backwards through the sensor etc. The plastic box and wiring loom connector also got a good rinse.
Left it to dry and did something else for half an hour. Also, DO NOT SMOKE whilst doing this, it got to several points where there was plumes of vapour coming off!

The finished article! The two ends got wire-wooled and polished. The rubber seal was cleaned and got a light coating of oil. The groove the seal sits in got wire-wooled and a small screwdriver run through it.

Before re-assembly both ends got a light smear of grease and re assembled.

Didn't take any afters. It looked the same as before apart from 2 shiney jubilee clips!

Finally, time to fire her up and see what happens...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBZdeMPOAxI[/youtube]

 

[starfire27]

Good stuff

The plastic box in the lid is a resonator designed to keep the induction noise down. I removed it as the FRP does not have it, on its own it does not make much difference really but doing the whole FRP airbox mod does.

Search FRP airbox for more info k:

 

[Roadsport]

I too found this MAF cleaning helpfull. Surprisingly much so! Thanks Evil Donut for the tip I really appreciate it!! Popably would not've been arsed whit it if I had not read your post.

 

[bigJ]

little tip my dad told me if your engine is a little shy of starting up, when turning the key in the ignition when the dash lights come on press the accelerator twice and wait a couple of seconds before turning the ignition the last bit, my cars a little troublesome on those coldest of mornings and its worked for me.

 

[james v]

Hi thanks for the guide.

When i do it this weekend, can i spray inside the little plastic box thats screwed onto it that has the clip of wires that plugs into it. I see youve pictured it but unsure if you prayed inside it.
Every few time i start the car up it takes a couple of attempts and feels like its just not getting the air/petrol right as the engine turnes over just doesnt quite fire up

Thanks

 

[evilrob]

I left the plastic bit on and sprayed the shit out of everything, so I imagine it got a soaking. Left it to dry for a half hour or so and put it back in - works fine. Maybe I got lucky I don't know, but it didn't have any adverse affect for me.

 

[evilrob]

When you start the car, make sure you press the clutch down, wait for the fuel pump to finish doing its thing and wait for all the dash lights to go out; that helps starting up. Mine gets very unhappy if I forget, and just jump in and turn straight to "on".