P0103...maf....won't Start And If It Does, Bucking

[MadeInJapan]

I'm usually the one giving advice here but I need help from the true experts and those who have gone through this. My car (S70 '98 T5 with right at 110K miles on it) had been running great lately. Recently I changed a thermostat...no problems. Cleaned a replaced the PCV hoses a week or so ago...no problem there...and it was now time to do an oil change today before our semester begins at school tomorrow. I bought 6 quarts of Mobil-1 synthetic 5-W30 as I normally would for the winter and did the change. Strange, but I'm a bit short to the top of the dip stick so I decide to drive to the autozone (just a couple of miles away) for one more quart. Seems that most always I've got a smidgen left over from 6 quarts, but anyway, I get on the road. All is fine until I get off of our hill and onto the flat 4 lane. Then suddenly my car dies in the middle of the road. I try to start but it's a no-go. I try again and it barely starts and I get over into the center turn lane (just a few blocks from the A-zone) with my flashers on. I have my trusty scan tool with me so I look up the codes (check engine light on now), and at first I get P0243...Turbocharge Wastegate Solenoid A Malfunction, and think this is strange. Then, I get a second code- a P0103: Mass or Volume Circuit Low Input. I start up again with a great deal of effort and buck wildly to the A-zone who can't help me a bit...well, at least I buy an extra quart of oil and call my wife. I'm thinking that I'm going to have to park the car here over night but don't like the idea of it being messed with and want to get it home...so, by the time she gets there I've cleared the codes and can start my car again but it's very very uneven. Black smoke from my exhaust and smell of the cat. converter (sulfer), but somehow I limp home, the last leg of it up a hill, but the car seems to idle high...I think, that's okay because when I put on the brake the idle dwindles and the car will die. I let it do it's thing up the hill and into our driveway (just a half miles or so at most), and park my car. My wife is behind me all the way and tells me there was very little black smoke except once on the way home, in the middle of the intersection, at a red light when the car died and I had to crank it several times to get it started.

At home I get on the boards and read that most likely it's a MAF sensor, so I do the BAY13 trick of plugging and unplugging it 20 times (maybe a coroded connection, I thought), clear the code and the car start up fine. I'm thinkingt that maybe this fixed it, so I try to pull out of the drive way and up the incline of our coldasack but it stalls again...I back down and park it again, not wanting to do anything else tonight. I haven't touched the car since this...I don't want to. I'll probably have it towed to my indy tomorrow while I borrow my father-in-law's car to get to and from work. I can only do this for a day or two...I really need my car running right, and quickly.

Guess my question is, is this most likely just a MAF? The plastic tie around the connector (a fix that Volvo recommended a few years back) had been done when I bought the car, so I know that the original problems people were having is not the current issue. I think that the Turbo code was secondary to the P0103, but could it have been the cause? Did driving my car home foul up anything...the O2 sensor, Cat. converter, plugs? No other codes are showing up now except for the P0103 but the inside of the car has a distinct sulfer smell to it. Will changing out the MAF sensor take care of my problems or am I in for other stuff too with this code and what I did to the car after I got it (namely driving it home). Any help would be appreciated.

I suppose that trying to drive it to my indy tomorrow rather than having it towed is out of the question...right?

[MadeInJapan]

Okay....7 have veiwed this now...no takers on advice? Thanks in advance! I need to deal with this tomorrow...actually trust someone else to deal with it as I will be busy at work....Why couldn't this have hapened 2 weeks ago when I was still on break?

[NoodleKnight]

...No other codes are showing up now except for the P0103 but the inside of the car has a distinct sulfer smell to it.

Well... usually that sulfer smell comes with a bad cat, may want to check that out.

[MadeInJapan]

Thanks...yeah, I plan to get that looked at too, but there is no code showing up for the Cat, so I suspect it was the extra lean fuel mixture from the incorrect MAF data that caused a lot of carbon to be shot through to the Cat....hope it didn't foul it and harm it.

[NateB]

Had similar symptoms- I replaced the MAF and all back to normal. Symptoms of a MAF going bad generally exhibit themselves at idle lower speed. Intermittent engine cutt-out and stalling is what I had.

I did not have the luxury of time - so I picked up the MAF from my friendly Volvo dealership. For me it was simple 5 minute installation.

Good Luck

by the way- This is my 1,000 th official post here at Volvospeed (buy me a beer). Miss the original webmaster Rich Kelly - he ran a very informative forum.

[MadeInJapan]

Thanks Nate...and congrats on your 1000th posting. If you were near me I'd be glad to buy you a beer...a premium beer! Anyway, I really don't have the luxury of time either. I'll have it towed tomorrow....won't ask my indy, I'll just get it there. Hopefully I'll pick it up in the evening with a new MAF and new plugs if they are fouled terribly too.

[Trunks850R]

Thanks Nate...and congrats on your 1000th posting. If you were near me I'd be glad to buy you a beer...a premium beer! Anyway, I really don't have the luxury of time either. I'll have it towed tomorrow....won't ask my indy, I'll just get it there. Hopefully I'll pick it up in the evening with a new MAF and new plugs if they are fouled terribly too.

hey man, my guys at Trans Tech in Oak Ridge are good at what they do!! have you ever called eroupeian auto parts on clinton highway? they've got alot of volvos over there. they were gonna sell me a ECU for 100 bucks. call them and see if they've got a used MAF for your car. that would be a good trial and error cause if they've got one it will be cheap and garunteed!

hey man call me at Ole ben franklin motors(693-9315) about the duluth meet, im driving down there sunday morning, and if you want you can follow medown there!!

[Sinbad]

To test the MAF, unplug it and start the car. If it runs OK, the maf is most likely shot.

However, from your description of the car stalling when you apply the brakes, I would suspect a vacuum leak somewhere. Doublecheck all your vacuum lines!

Cheers

S

[delav18]

I know the car is heading in tomorrow, but for what it is worth...

Interesting how coincidental it all seems. As previously stated, let the car idle with the MAF unplugged, see if idle/throttle response/ehaust changes... Obviously something has spooked the air/fuel trim in your car, I'm leaning towards a large vacuum leak. "Rotten-egg-cat" is obviously indicative of a burnt up cat, but you had said that the car was running great before your oil change; usually a dying cat will be evident in a progrressive loss of performance (and will usually trigger rear O2 and cat codes) I had the intercooler hose to my TB slip off and had similar symptoms as you, aside from the catalytic issue. Check intercooler hoses first, then all of your vacuum hoses.

By The Way- thank you for the help with the codes last night. It was a split in the line from my egr valve to the vacuum tree. All is well.

[Sinbad]

Rotten egg smell could also be caused by over-rich running (also the black smoke). Big vacuum leak under boost will cause way over-rich running....

[MadeInJapan]

Thanks everyone...I have to go to work in 30 minutes...trying to call my indy now.

[Fake Name]

My s70 did the same thing. It was the MAF.

fn

[Kibim]

Yup, MAF for sure.

You can still drive the car, just unplug the MAF 'n drive it like that. You'll be running rich, so yeah, you'll get sulphur smells a little, but shouldn't be overbearing. You should also get a CEL. Your fuel consumption will be pretty bad too, but not devistating.

The stalling under breaking is a load vs air thing. It's also MAF related, my car did the same thing ... Darn scary. 1.7 tonnes and no power brakes isn't funny.

Try running without the MAF for a day or two, if all your symptoms clear up, then you're only in for a new MAF.

[MadeInJapan]

I like needed the MAF sensor yesterday. Drove my father-in-law's truck to work today and let myself off early...stopped by the Volvo dealer (not much choice here) and picked one up. Was told as long as I didn't install it I could return it. Tried everything but it was the MAF. Swapped it out and I'm up and running as good as new again. I unplugged the bad MAF and got decent idle. As soon as I plugged it in however, the car would die and set a code. I would have bought the one at European Import like was recommended. I called them but the only one they had was from an 850 and not off of a turbo....was running out of sunlight and so I didn't want to take a chance. Anyway, one from them would have been $60. However the guy at the dealer was very kind....normally $208, gave it to me for $177 + tax of course. Better safe than sorry.