Excessive air flow meter consumption

[sti wrx]

I have had my v6 sti for around 5-6 months and in the last month alone it has gone through 6 afm, all in the space of 5 weeks, with the last replacement only lasting a drive up the road. i had 5 months problem free motoring now constant afm replacements. any ideas ?

Not running a pod filter with oil.

The afm is secured to the body of the car so it doesn't rock around with the engine

All the intake system has been cleaned out.

It is starting to really piss me off as i am almost never able to drive it.

[Guest loren]

what intake do you have?

[sti wrx]

factory piping, with a foam mushroom filter, no factory airbox due to intercooler piping

[Guest loren]

 sti wrx said:

factory piping, with a foam mushroom filter, no factory airbox due to intercooler piping

bingo.

[sti wrx]

highly doubt it to be the reason, as its been working fine as is for the past 5 months

[gazzy2000]

if you paid $180 a time for new AFMs and you have had 6 of them, thats all good money towards a link i.e. no AFM

[sti wrx]

they get replaced for free under warranty but they are getting pretty sick of replacing them haha...

[CUDDAS]

where about's is your power steering tank?, catch can? power steering cooler slight leak being misted thru the fan?

is the foam filter over oiled. just a few maybe's as it shouldn't be killing new afm's like that

pictures of your set up might be a help too

[Stoffa]

or maybe its been misdiagnosed and theres nothing wrong with any of the AFM's

Have you tried replacing the water temp sensor, they share a power feed from memory. I was told by a subaru tech that a faultly water temp sensor can throw up a fault code for an AFM.

Who's doing the warranty work?

For piece of mind you could try a Apexi pod filter, they're not cheap but DEFINATLY safe with AFM's

[Guest loren]

 Stoffa said:

For piece of mind you could try a Apexi pod filter, they're not cheap but DEFINATLY safe with AFM's

They're not that safe, I had one and went through 2 or 3 AFMs. Have gone back to standard airbox now.

[DRFVDR]

is the airflow meters secure (like bolted to a bracket) as they dont like vibration much

are they being replaced with NEW GENUINE items ???

[Swindog]

 sti wrx said:

they get replaced for free under warranty but they are getting pretty sick of replacing them haha...

AFMs dont work well with pods. Fact of life on some Subarus. My old gtb was fine with the pod until one day it decided it didnt like it and lunched 4 afms. Put factory box back on, no problems at all. Took the pod off my current GTb for the same reason. It was detonating at teretonga, with factory box, no problem.

[sti wrx]

Its not really a pod, its a foam filter, and i wish i could have a factory air box, but the intercooler piping comes in the way of it

The afm is bolted to 2 brackets to stop it from banging around will post a pic later..

And yeah they are genuine coming from Strongs Subaru

[Swindog]

Custom make your own box that roughly is the same size, volume wise, that a factory one is.

[sti wrx]

What would be the point if it's already completely braced?

[Guest loren]

Stop excess dust getting into your inferior air filter.

[Swindog]

its all about the air flow mate. its too much for the meters so they give up.

[gazzy2000]

 Swindog said:

its all about the air flow mate. its too much for the meters so they give up.

i was of the understanding that a motor (turbo or not) will only suck in as much as its able to i.e. it dosent get any extra air with the fitting of a POD.. same volume just better unrestricted flow?

[Guest loren]

 Swindog said:

its all about the air flow mate. its too much for the meters so they give up.

Can you elaborate? What does "it's all about air flow" mean? and what exactly is "too much for the meters"?

[CUDDAS]

a bit like lessening the restriction i'd say is what he might have ment, that's how i read it?

Not sure about too much for the meters though, "Is there a certian point at which the turbo (or larger turbo size) is drawing so much through the afm that it just cant measure accurately"

[Swindog]

I was told that with them being quite a sensitive piece of equipment too much airflow as in what CUDDAS said can harm them. I mean for example, the only mod i had on the old GTB was a pod filter. It was braced up but had no airbox or cold airbox. Was fine for months then one day it chewed one up. The next one was ok until a stinking hot day and it chewed another up. Put the box back on and as far as im aware its still a o.k. The tech from ... cant remember, they were up on main st in palmy - next to the cheap cars under $3k, told me about the air flow etc. Itichban would be the man in the know I would say though; so what i said is hearsay until proven otherwise. But it made sense when he said it. If someone was blowing heaps of hot air in your face constantly at an unregulated pace youd blow your top too haha.

And how do you know its too much? Well id guess theres an electronic pulse or voltage you can measure to tell you and itll have a limit, much like a element wire in a light bulb. Itll only burn for so long if mistreated.

[CUDDAS]

nice, my car has had a pod filter on it for years & years (9-10) with the same afm, then i placed a catch can infront of it & with in a week or so it had died. the catch can was empty so i assume it was the vapours breathing out the tank filter & misting onto / sucked into the pod

since relocating my set up i've had no problems