crap, what did i do? please help!

[O 16581 72452 5]

With the ICV unplugged the idle should jump between 800-2000 rpm's every 2 seconds or so, not shut off.

I wouldn't recommend doing anything with the internals of the AFM. If it worked before you used the cleaner, nothing got bent out of place. Leave it dry, maybe let it get sunlight in there to help dry the chemical up. It's very possible you gunked it up with cleaner, or loosened the dirt up and it got stuck on the sensor. As a last ditch effort, try cleaning it again. If that fails, your car will never start or run without the AFM, so you better start looking for another one now if this is your only ride.

Go let your car sit for a long period of time (like overnight) and try starting it with the ICV unhooked if you don't believe me. :P

I'm saying bend the contacts because it may've gotten on the contacts in there, clean it up, bend them down a bit, it's a common wear point, bending them makes it pull smoother most of the time anyway, it's very easy, nothing you can break. Just seal the lid back with some silicone or whatever you have that will seal it.

There may just be a flat spot in the idle portion, mine had this problem rather suddenly with a crappy idle and crappy high throttle, the contact had just worn itself from the sweeping.

[porsche gt1]

I suspect that when you were cleaning you engine bay with your hose you knocked something out of place.

I would check the following to make sure they are in the correct spot.
-Crank position sensor
-throttle position
-wires that attach to the service plug there are 2
-engine ground wire
-wires attached to your starter (near the firewall underneath the master cylinder)

basically I would check every wire to see if they are in the proper spot

[Van Westervelt]

FTI. If you spayed crap out of the engine and or moved some lines around to get the afm out, you probably made a vaccuum leak worse. By either uncovering it from the dirt that was sealing it or by bending the hose to crack it more. I had the same issues with a bay that I sprayed. After 2 days, it was fine.

[E30 Wagen]

Go let your car sit for a long period of time (like overnight) and try starting it with the ICV unhooked if you don't believe me. :P

I'm saying bend the contacts because it may've gotten on the contacts in there, clean it up, bend them down a bit, it's a common wear point, bending them makes it pull smoother most of the time anyway, it's very easy, nothing you can break. Just seal the lid back with some silicone or whatever you have that will seal it.

There may just be a flat spot in the idle portion, mine had this problem rather suddenly with a crappy idle and crappy high throttle, the contact had just worn itself from the sweeping.

I let it sit overnight, and nada. Also (a question that shows how nooblet I am) what contacts are you talking about? I didn't remove the black cover thing because it's siliconed on... I just sprayed the little yellow sensor thing that had a little bit of grime on it.

[ivo316]

Longshot, but worth a try, when i sprayed my engine bay, the car wouldnt start at all, I found condensed droplets inside my distributor cap.

Take your spark plug wires, distributor cap, ignition coil wire and dry them with a clean rag, use some wd40 inside the cap.

Mine started after that. ;)

[O 16581 72452 5]

I let it sit overnight, and nada. Also (a question that shows how nooblet I am) what contacts are you talking about? I didn't remove the black cover thing because it's siliconed on... I just sprayed the little yellow sensor thing that had a little bit of grime on it.

Thinking it may've been already taken apart and the silicone didn't seal, my second e30 someone had already done the bending the contacts trick.

Just a long shot guess, probably won't fix your problem, but it doesn't hurt to bend them down for a better contact, idle issues can come suddenly from it wearing...might just be a coincidence it happened at the same time from wear.

Better to go over these free things first that may fix your problem rather than spending money...right?

[JGood]

Thinking it may've been already taken apart and the silicone didn't seal, my second e30 someone had already done the bending the contacts trick.

Just a long shot guess, probably won't fix your problem, but it doesn't hurt to bend them down for a better contact, idle issues can come suddenly from it wearing...might just be a coincidence it happened at the same time from wear.

Better to go over these free things first that may fix your problem rather than spending money...right?

That's not a BAD idea, but for someone who is not experienced to open up a likely good AFM and start messing with things is pointless. He'll end up needing a new AFM when the problem was most likely moisture in the cap/rotor, wet fuse box, vacuum leak, loose connector/wiring, etc...

I'm willing to bet 95% of AFM's were never opened up. And considering he cleaned his and immediatly after that it wouldn't work, I think worn contacts are about .001% likely to cause his no-start condition. No reason to risk messing things up more.

[E30 Wagen]

just to let you people know what happened...

Got another afm and now the car runs.

[JGood]

Good deal. Now play with the other AFM and try to getting working so you have a spare, and learn something at the same time.

[Deuce]

Clean it with some rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle and let it dry for about 15 mins.