air flow meter tuning

[Gabriel]

hi guys

i have an e36 318i with an m 42 motor. i feel my car is starting to hold back abit on power when accelerating. i was considering tuning the air flow meter or changing the air flow meter from the bosch motronic unit to the bosch air mass meter from a 325i. can anyone advise me on the consequences and benefits of doing this?

[bmwman91]

Do not touch it. End of story. The only thing to do is replace it if you find that it is acting incorrectly. You can DIY rebuild it to a certain extent, but there is negative benefit to messing with its calibration (yes, it will make the car run worse than stock if you start changing things). I have done a full MAF conversion on my engine, and I can also tell you that there is essentially zero benefit to this other than eliminating the stock sensor's moving parts.

Generally, when the air meter goes bad you experience full loss of power at certain RPMs and such. It is less likely that you will see small/partial degradations in power. What are your exact symptoms?