that good old K&N juice

[Maxima SE]

Decided to swap my starter out to fix my intermittent starting issue (don't get me started on those 12mm Torx bolts)..... once the plenum came off, I discovered 6+ years of baked on delicious crusted K&N oil all over the throttle bodies and trumpets... it was disgusting ! The K&N was already on the car when I bought it, but I'm guilty of recharging it myself as well... even though I always sprayed as little as possible !

One large spray can of carb cleaner later the TB's looked acceptable. Lots of simple green with a brush attached to my drill was used to return the plenum to new condition. My IACV was stuck and dirty too..... no wonder the idle was like crap !

Moral of the story: if you use a rechargeable filter, you got yourself a quarantine project. I'm tossing mine in the trash !

[jbfrancis3]

Nice & clean. How did you know it was K&N filter oil and not engine oil?

[Maxima SE]

Nice & clean. How did you know it was K&N filter oil and not engine oil?

I wiped some of it off from the trumpets and it was the color of the K&N oil... and it was all over the inside of the plenum too.

I am thinking about starting her up with the plenum off to spray seafoam individually into the TB's. I am not sure if it will choke and die with all the hoses disconnected and the MAF not sensing much airflow. good idea? bad idea? anyone know?

[Stepstools]

I'm not a big fan of K&N filters either, but to be honest my airbox and TBs looked about the same when I pulled my airbox off last month. I'm guessing they hadn't been cleaned for all 154k miles. My intake is all stock, so it's all just oil from the PCV system. If I ever splurge for a CSL style airbox I'll probably get an oil catch can to keep it clean.

I'm pretty sure that the car won't start with the MAF disconnected, not sure what happens if it's plugged in but seeing no airflow.

[Arith2]

I'm pretty sure that the car won't start with the MAF disconnected, not sure what happens if it's plugged in but seeing no airflow.

The PCM has a default setting that has preset parameters so it should run fine. It'll probably pull info from the ambient air temp sensor, 3 TPS sensors, O2 sensors, and coolant temp sensor. A MAF is not a requirement for a car to run. Redundancy is good engineering.

[heinzboehmer]

Yeah I've started my car without the MAF connected before. Runs fine but throws a check engine light pretty fast.

[Arith2]

Yeah I've started my car without the MAF connected before. Runs fine but throws a check engine light pretty fast.

Oh of course. It's an emissions component.

[Cubieman]

I just cleaned/oiled my k&n recently. Will be removing the airbox soon, maybe I will have that pleasant surprise as well

[crbws6]

Is there an idle re-learn procedure if the TB plate is touched/moved? This is a challenge on some vehicles after a TB cleaning.

Also - I thought I saw that our cars already have a built-in oil separator that re-deposits the oil in the pan? Maybe that was the Non-M cars.

[Maxima SE]

hmmm, maybe some of it maybe engine oil as well....

I may start her up and spray some seafoam in there... the only problem is that i dont want all that seafoam smoke in the garage lol.

still waiting on two new starter bolts to come so I can put her back together. In the meantime, I put a new fan clutch/blade, pulleys, belts, flushed coolant, PS fluid and engine oil.

i will let you guys know if the idle needs to be relearned. When I cleaned the TB on my 2001 nissan, it had to relearn the idle so we will see how this car behaves.

[heinzboehmer]

I cleaned my throttle bodies recently and there was no learning procedure necessary. As long as you don't mess with the linkage setup (you won't unless you start taking things apart), the car should behave normally.