UK Car Repair: vauxhall corsa (1999) 2 problems, air flow meter, fuel air mixture

Question
hello i wonder if you could help i have used a diy diagnostic reader and found i have 2 problems with my car they are mass or volume air flow circuit and 02 sensor circuit (bank 1 sensor 1) can you tell me how bad these problems are and how or if they can be fixed thank you .

Answer
Hello Perry,

The O2 sensor senses the exhaust gas and alters the fuel air mixture to achieve the optimum ratio, what this means to you is that when the O2 sensor is not working ,the F/A (fuel/air) mixture is incorrect and either too rich or too weak the result is less MPG and rough idling when cold if the sensor is giving a weak signal and a weakened mixture , loss of power if it is giving a rich signal.

The air flow meter monitors the amount of air being sucked into the engine and alters injector time accordingly. The results of a faulty air flow meter are much the same as the O2 sensor (an incorrect mixture).

My advice is to change the air flow meter and run the car to see if that was why the O2 sensor was reading incorrectly, this may be optimistic but hey it could save you £60. hope this helps you -  Paul