Spark knock - detonation - pinging - 94 4.0L

[Amac]

Well, ever since I bought my Explorer, it has detonated unde medium to heavy load, mostly on the highway.. It's been getting worse lately, so I decided to do something about it.

From what I have read, I found that it is a common problem for the lower intake bolts to loosen up and create vacuum leaks, which sounded reasonable.. I was at my local NAPA dealer this morning and ran into a fellow I met at some NAPA tech courses.. He overheard that I was ordering some gaskets and said, let me guess.. Spark knocking, no codes? I said yeah, how did you know.. He has replaced a lot of MAF's for this reason, so I thought I would try one since that is a lot easier than changine the top end gaskets..

After pulling my MAF sensor from the body, I noticed that there was a black residue built up on one of the elements so I took a soft tooth brush and cleaned it up.. What do you know, it works perfect now! I was pretty happy, yet annoyed that it was something so simple.. Sorry I didn't take any pics, but if you take yours out, it'll be pretty obvious.. The elements should be super clean with nothing at all on them to function properly..

Anyways, I hope this helps someone out there.. Something really easy to check providing you have an anti-theft Torx bit..

Cheers,

 

[djsonixx]

Hey thanks man, for the longest time my ex was pulling a code for the MAF, then one day it just went off and never came back on. Even though sometimes when Im idle it cuts out, and when i cold start I have spark knock for a split second. I'm going to go get some cleaner tomorrow and make a posted tutorial with pictures on how to do this. I was priced at $100 even for a new sensor, if i can fix/clean the old one. I WILL LOL.