Subaru Repair: 93 Legacy Wagon, subaru legacy wagon, mass air flow sensor

Question
I've got a 93 Subaru Legacy Wagon with 160K miles on it, and it ran great until a recent problem arose. I was returning from a long distance trip doing about 70 mph through steady rain  when my 'Check Engine' light came on and the car started to sputter, lurch, decelerate, and lose power. There was also a strong smell of something burning filling the interior, but no smoke was coming out from under the hood. After limping about 4 miles to an Interstates service station, I refilled the tank with Premium and added some fuel injector cleaner, thinking there might be a clog in the system. Afterwards, I was able to start the car three times - each time the idle was all over the place - and finally, it wouldn't start at all. I had it towed and after letting it sit for a few days, it started right back up and drove like nothing had happened. Any ideas as to what might be the cause of this? The car is primarily used for long-distance travel and I don't want this to happen again when I don't have the benefit of a nearby service station.

Answer
There are quite a few possibilities but the most common with that set of symptoms would be the mass air flow sensor.  This is the device in which the computer uses to know how much air is entering the engine and will give the vehicle fuel in accordance with the known quantity of air.  If the Mass air flow sensor fails to give or worse gives the wrong readings to the computer the car will run very poorly.  You can your self try and clean the mass air flow sensor with a chemical made by CRC called mass air flow sensor cleaner part #05110.  You will need to remove the top portion of the air filter housing/air box and spray the chemical onto the heated wire portion of the sensor(with the engine OFF).  Other than that you may have to take it in for a proper diagnoses.

Justin

All Wheel Drive Auto