Left Me Stranded

[shewcj01]

Well I have to say that in all my many miles on the road traveling for work today was probably only the 2nd time a vehicle has left me stranded. A little backstory;

I have a 2014 Explorer XLT AWD, loaded, all XLT options available, plus remote start. It is a company vehicle that I spec'd out from the get go. I have had it for just about a year, it has 34,000 miles on it and has had regular services at the local Ford Dealer every 5,000 miles. No major issues with the car, I had the front cowl under windshield changed at about 800 miles because it was bowed and hummed on the windshield at 55 mph, when it's cold the drivers side widow hangs up and will bounce down when you use the auto-up feature (frustrating but won't leave you sitting), overall very dependable, comfortable and good looking car.

So about 5 weeks ago I had it serviced with 32,000 miles and everything checked out good. I was heading out for business trip today and had to make a stop about 2 hours from home. No biggie, got to my appointment ok and was getting ready to head out of town when it happened. I was 2 blocks away from my first stop when i was sitting at a light and this is how it all went down;
1. Coming up to stop light (off gas, on brakes) the idle started to jerk around between almost dying and just over 1000 rpm.
2. Terrain Management Failure screen pops up on dash.
3. Wrench screen pops up
4. Car Dies
5. Car seems to fire and immediately dies.
6. Get car to limp into nearby parking lot by holding pedal on floor and throwing into drive. Car creeped about 2mph into the parking lot.
7. Call Ford Roadside and have it towed to nearest dealer. (2.5 hr wait on tow truck, not Ford's fault but didn't help the situation).
8. Dealer finds Code P061B,
9. Dealer cleans MAF sensor and replaces original OEM engine air filter
10. Clears codes and car checks out ok.
11. I just drove 300 miles with no problems.

My question(s) are: What is the actual readout of Code P061B? Should the original air filter be bad at 30K? Should I be concerned about this happening again? I'm not a fan of getting stranded and this gave absolutely NO warning of issues. Just seems odd for a MAF to be dirty enough to malfunction at 30K miles.

My wife drives a nearly identical '14 EX Limited with about 20K miles and I am wondering if I should be changing the air filter on it now?

 

[Dr Plastic]

Owners manual has you replace the engine air filter at ........30,000 miles! So, yes it may have been clogged!

 

[Halwg]

Owners manual has you replace the engine air filter at ........30,000 miles! So, yes it may have been clogged!

My question would be, if it was just serviced at 32K, why didn't they replace the air filter? I'm thinking the OP isn't telling the whole tale.

 

[tonytheexplorer]

It's normal. I actually change my air filter ever 15k.

 

[blanchard7684]

I doubt the filter was bad enough at 32k miles to ruin an maf. This might be the case if you commuted through the back woods of Kentucky in mud bog conditions every day.

I live in W. Texas (think flying dirt all day) and I changed the filter at 20k and it was dusty and dirty but not enough to ruin a maf.

Some other possibilities:

Oil or blow by in the intake plumbing might have allowed some gumming up of the maf element.

During previous service intervals, someone didn't get the air filter box seated correctly, and you were drawing in dirty air by bypassing the air filter.

 

[Odrapnew]

I can tell you from experience that an air filter can go from clean enough to run to clogged overnight(well, a weekend).

Last year, my motorcycle filter was so clogged, the bike wouldn’t even idle. What really odd is that it ran perfectly fine the Friday before, went to start the bike the Monday after the weekend and it choked and died. It didn’t make sense to me why that happened, but it did. I replaced the filter and it was back to running again.

So, the question halwg asked is still a good one. If the service interval says change every 30k and the vehicle was just serviced @ 32k, why didn't they change the filter?

Also, a dirty filter wouldn’t cause a MAF to get dirty enough to malfunction unless the filter collapsed and/or had a leak. In fact, a dirty air filter would be letting in less dust than a clean one, so you’re actually doing the MAF a favor by having a dirty filter.

 

[shewcj01]

This is an interesting statement, the first part I find quite valid. I asked the same question especially since the check out sheet on the last service showed the air filter checked out "green", not yellow or red. It will get changed regularly now. However the second statement is complete BS and unnecessary, what would be the point of "telling a tale" to a bunch of complete strangers online that I will never meet or have personal interaction with? My experience was put out there to help better educate not only myself, but others who might be in the same situation.

My question would be, if it was just serviced at 32K, why didn't they replace the air filter? I'm thinking the OP isn't telling the whole tale.

 

[bigdude2468]

Unless you were in extremely dusty conditions the air filter was almost certainly not the culprit. Just because the code said the MAF was bad does it mean it was dirty, it just failed. This happened while he was driving so an air filter does not go from acceptable to catastrophic failure instantaneously.

BTW, Consumer Reports says that changing air filters is the single biggest waste of money that consumers do. Remember, air filters protect your engine and aid in performance, they do not contribute to lower gas mileage as they become less efficient.

 

[Odrapnew]

Unless you were in extremely dusty conditions the air filter was almost certainly not the culprit. Just because the code said the MAF was bad does it mean it was dirty, it just failed. This happened while he was driving so an air filter does not go from acceptable to catastrophic failure instantaneously.

BTW, Consumer Reports says that changing air filters is the single biggest waste of money that consumers do. Remember, air filters protect your engine and aid in performance, they do not contribute to lower gas mileage as they become less efficient.

Good point. I don't see a mention that the MAF was dirty, just that they cleaned it and replaced the air filter. I guess we can assume it was dirty, but again, that's just an assumption. Maybe the connection on the MAF was bad and the removal and reinstallation fixed it, not the cleaning.

I wouldn't say that a filter couldn't go from acceptable to catastropic instantaneously(or from on the gas cruising to slowing for a traffic light). Going back to my story, my motorcycle filter went from no issues on a Friday to choking off the engine on a Monday with no riding in between. I didn't think that was possible, but it happened. A question that will go unanswered at this time is: What would have happend if I rode another 10 miles that day? Would it have died and left me stranded? Will never know.

Just to correct your last statement, it's correct that a dirty filter shouldn't(under most conditions) affect your mileage, but a filter becomes more efficient as it gets dirty. I think what you mean(or CR) is that the filter becomes more restrictive as it gets dirty, which is true and that still wouldn't affect normal mileage.

 

[1995E]

Just a guess here, but I'd check your intake tube to see if there is any oil. Possibility it could have gotten onto the MAF from the PCV system? Your Explorer is a 2014 so I'd think you'd have the redesigned system that wouldn't let oil in the intake. Just a wild guess.

Also, the MAF is super sensitive. Even a little bit of dust will throw it off. When I used MAF cleaner on it, and didn't let it dry off, my Explorer showed the symptoms and wouldn't even start.

Here's a video of the code btw: