I haven't seen one of those, but I would assume it's a water trap also.

A hole at the bottom won't cause a vacuum leak because there's no vacuum before the throttle plate - unless your air filter is clogged. The Gen1 air filter housings also have a small hole in the bottom for water dropout.

Frank

Eish!

Just drove to the shop and it's hunting again and stuttering while driving.

This intermittent thing makes me point at the MAF again.

Any tips on cleaning and testing. I can't find a procedure in the FSM that I can follow without their special tool. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

All you can do is read resistance across 2 pins of the sensor - which is inadequate to test all of the functions provided by that module. If you can find a known good one to swap in for a test, go ahead - but I wouldn't buy one just yet.

First, test the coolant temperature sensor that sends the engine temperature signal to the ECU. You should find the procedure in the FSM.

Frank

I decided to open and see how deep I can go. When I came to the controller board it was damp. Luckily I don't see any bad rust so I left it next to the heater for 15min and then put a fan ( not heated ) on it for 90minutes to dry it out.

redid the seals and closed her up.

Started the car ( now cold ) and idle was perfect.

Maybe the moisture was messing with the barometric or temp sensor inside the MAF ???

Will see what she does tomorrow.

Troubleshooted the temp sensor but that checks out OK.

Thanks for the input.

If the problem continues I'll look for a temporary swap but that is scarce around here. Or I'll get a quote from the dealer ( Last resort ).

water on the board could lead to false readings to the ecu via stray currents getting to the wrong places. False air mass readings are perhaps the more deadly, as the baro reading is mostly just a bias on the MAF fuel map in most systems I understand. IAT is also in the maf IIRC, but that's mostly just another bias on the map values.

Idle was fine this morning when cold but as soon as she got the temp up it wants to die again and there is very slight bucking from the engine.

If I unplug the MAF the idle smoothes out.

Dealer wants R4790.00 ( R8 = $1 ) <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

I'll have to live with it ( and not drive it very often - scared for lean condition ) until I can get a new one.

I wouldn't buy a new MAF unless I was sure it was the problem. Even then, if you can find one in a junkyard and get a warranty, the price would be a lot less.

Can you find another owner who would let you try a swap to see if it resolves the problem?

Frank

We don't have that extensive junkyards here <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Unfortunately I will only be able to swap with a good one if I mug someone that I see drives the same car as me <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I'm considering soaking completely a couple hours in pure alcohol and letting dry for a day or two.

That is to collect water in case you go through a deep enough stream/river.

It's one of the things that really impressed me about the Montero when I first started wheeling it. I know the Gen 1 & 2's (including 2.5's) had them. Not sure about the gen 3's.

I can send you a 4x4wire sticker if you want. PM me your address. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

[quote]Here it is. It is just a suspended 'bottle' with the top open. there is nothing inside and there is nothing connected to it. the top is just open to the intake pipe.



That is a Helmholtz resonator. Kind of a noise filter for the intake system.