To keep it running I kept my foot on the gas to keep the revs up. Coming up to stop lights or having to deal with the little traffic there is here in Cleveland, I had to throw the car in neutral while braking with my left foot while keeping the revs boiling with my right. Of course, a time or two, it stalled out but it turned right back over. To make matters even more interesting, the cruise control wouldn't work so couldn't force the engine to stay at a certain rpm. There was no check engine light on either. However, and just like the last time, eventually the cruise did kick in and everything was fine. I got the car home and turned it over ten times in a row without a hitch.
Knowing that these intermittent problems always become more "mittent", I dropped the car off at Conrad's Friday afternoon for a diagnosis and an oil change. I gave the master mechanic a detailed rundown as to what was going on and he feverishly typed what I said into his 1991 vintage PC. After he finished typing he looked at me with a serious glare in his eye that I have to imagine a doctor has when they have to tell a patient grim news and he said he had no idea what could be causing the car to not start and stall. Especially since there's no check engine light on and the problem is intermittent. After I left the shop, I waited for the phone to ring with a diagnosis. I braced for impact.
Much to my delight, when I got the call from Conrad's it turned out to be nothing more than a failing mass air flow sensor or "MAF". The "MAF" does what its name implies; it measures the flow of air into a fuel injected engine. They also have a wide variety of symptoms when they start to go. The last time the MAF went on my car, which was maybe 2 1/2 years ago at the most, I felt at times that I was getting gently rear-ended at times and the transmission wasn't making the cleanest nor smoothest of shifts. I feared it was something dire like the transmission failing. On the 1996 Chevrolet Camaro's my boys drive, failing MAF's made them near impossible to drive. The engines ran rough and could barely shift between gears.
What gets me is how much shops charge to replace simple sensors like MAF's. The all-in cost of having Conrad's diagnose the problem, change my oil and swap out the MAF was $491. That breaks down to $100 for the diagnostic, $25 for an oil change, $338 for a new MAF, ($225 for the part and $113 for labor) and ancillary bullshit shop fees and taxes. I thanked Conrad's for the diagnosis and oil change and got out the door for $153. They also recommended some other services like cleaning the fuel injectors and changing out spark plugs and wires jacking up the potential cost of the day to $745. I appreciate the fact that these shops have huge overhead but...wow; I have to wonder how many people take them up on these recommendations? Thanks, but no thanks.
I bought a new, actually remanufactured, MAF from NAPA for $153 saving $183. Two small screws and a plug later and my car is running as good as new; it took me less than five minutes to do the swap. While I'm certainly not happy about having dropped $308, especially the kick in the groin that is Conrad's diagnostic fee, I do have the peace of mind that the MAF was the problem. Also, not knowing what the problem was beforehand, my wife and I were prepared for the worst; replacing the whole car if it came back that there was something prohibitively expensive to repair. $308 is a relative drop in the bucket and money, in my opinion, very well spent. Especially when I consider that on the cheap end, I may have jumped into a replacement car that may have cost me $300 a month for the next 36 to 48 months. All good.
Pushing 165,000 miles, "The Dale" lives on.
I bought a new, actually remanufactured, MAF from NAPA for $153 saving $183. Two small screws and a plug later and my car is running as good as new; it took me less than five minutes to do the swap. While I'm certainly not happy about having dropped $308, especially the kick in the groin that is Conrad's diagnostic fee, I do have the peace of mind that the MAF was the problem. Also, not knowing what the problem was beforehand, my wife and I were prepared for the worst; replacing the whole car if it came back that there was something prohibitively expensive to repair. $308 is a relative drop in the bucket and money, in my opinion, very well spent. Especially when I consider that on the cheap end, I may have jumped into a replacement car that may have cost me $300 a month for the next 36 to 48 months. All good.
Pushing 165,000 miles, "The Dale" lives on.
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