maxud

I was recently working on my dad's 1997 Max GXE. The symptom, the car would randomly stall at idle. I observed it in my garage, car is in Neutral, idling, then it would stall. Did not matter whether car was warm or cold.
It would happen while driving and coming to a stop light. The car had no check engine light.
There are many suggestions in the forum:
Throttle body
IACV
EGR
MAF

My first steps were to clean TB and IACV, complete disassemble and cleanout.
I fixed EGR issues couple of years ago, so TB did not look that bad.
The car ran nicer (quieter) after cleaning, but still stalled out.

Then I turned my attention to MAF. Somewhere in the forum I read about Nissan's MAFs going bad, but its really not the sensor, but backend of the connector. What happens is that the solder joins crack where the connector pins are soldered to the actual sensor motherboard. So while sensor is perfectly fine, it may appear non-functioning, or randomly not functioning.

So instead of buying new MAF sensor, I just repaired the one in the car.
The procedure is extremely simple.
MAF sensor is located couple of inches after the air filter.
Look for a black square on top of the air intake pipe.
Disconnect the electric connector on the side of the air pipe.
Use utility knife or other sharp tool to cut away the silicone/rubber seal
around the top of the box. Using a prying tool, pry the square cover off.
It comes out straight up. It may resist a little due to rubber pieces left over from the seal, just be persistent and use couple of flat screwdrivers.
Then remove a metal plate that covers the guts of the sensor. It is not attached, it just sits inside the assembly.

Locate 3 pins that come out of the electric connector and where they attach to the MAF motherboard. If you want to test for the problem, use a small screwdriver and try to move the pins away from the posts. If you get any kind of movement, you found your problem.
Then I used a solder iron, and re-soldered all visible joins. The problem only appears where the posts are soldered to the pins, but I touched every visible solder joint for good measure. It only takes a minute.
Place the metal plate back.
Place the square cover back.
Use caulk to seal around the cover. Wipe out the caulk and let it cure for little while.
Reconnect MAF electrical connector.

You are done! Not only does this fix your car, the repair hardly costs you any money.
I am glad I did not buy new MAF sensor to just throw parts at it.

Here is youtube video link that shows Nissan MAF sensor and the problem. Seems like it effects
most Nissan cars from that era.

You can always just buy a used or aftermarket sensor as well.
Hope this info helps somebody, my dad's car is back to running like a champ with 190k+ miles on the odo.
Glad to give back to the community where I learned so much.
Max