running lean

ok...I tried searching for the answere to my problem but couldn't find an anwsere in other treads.
A couple of weeks ago it was raining and stupid me thougt that I could make it a couple of blocks down the road as it wasn't raining very hard. Well as soon as I came to a stop (of course it had to be in a puddle) the engine started to try to die so I tried to blow it out. After about 3 minutes it came back to a regular idle and it seemed to run fine. The next day I got in my car and the air/fuel ratio guage read EXTREMELY lean. I mean it only read one bar on the lean side and that was only when I gave it over 1/4 throttle. It seems to be running fine except for the fact that it's reading lean.
I took it to autozone (and yes I know they know nothing) to see what codes it threw and it said that both front and rear O2 sensors weren't functioning. I reaplaced the front one and it looked pretty burnt. I have yet to replace the back one due to lack of cash.
Could it be that the water totally screwed up my MAF sensor and it's sending my ecu a bunch of hate mail or what?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
And sorry bout the long post.....so many things happen....argh!

its always possible you got it a little wet, u have a CAI?? water does mess it up, which really sux about maf's is that they are so sensitive!!!

your best option is to get a dif. maf, i can get one from a GT if you would like, if you have a 4cyl. one i don't have one of those i can get right away
they shouldn't be very much from a junkyard though, so try there first!!

sorry I didn't specify but it's a gt. the problem bout just getting a new maf is that it's not exactly cheap. and I've checked the salvage yards round here when I needed tail lights and 3g's are freakin scarce! I was half way hope'n that this had happened to some one else (not that I would wish it on anyone) so that I could just get a quick answere. I kinda know what it COULD be but I just don't want to go out and drop cash on something I don't really need. and nobody I know has a 3g gt so I'm kinda outta luck in the borrow department.......

p.s. I'm also looking for aftermarket parts that put up christmas trees and do house hold chores for me......

are you using a wideband a/f ratio gauge? or one of the blinky lights, bounce back and forth a/f ratio gauge?

so your in ok, why don't you try contacting some of the oklahoma people via club3g and see if they can't help you some
ur town isn't TOO far away from OKC
i assume you have the original injen intake right?

and i wish i couldhelp further, but that's about the extent of my reach

well.....fist of all I'm using the autometer ultra light a/f guage and no I don't have the stocky intake. (sad but true.....I move a lot and misplace things. arg) okc is like 4 hours away but I've got some dj friends there and I could make a weekend of it.

nah i meant you had the original Injen brand intake, the one that puts the MAF right down there in the fender when it is sooo much better in the middle??

cuz i have that one and its ok, but i'm upgrading to a dif. one when i get the $$

are you running lean during normal driving or when you are flooring it?

It's running lean all the time. at wot and while normal driving. and when i'm off the throttle completely it seems as if it's so lean it won't messure. and I have aem cia so the maf is in the middle.

you must not understand how that kind of a/f ratio gauge works. its a narrowband gauge. when you are NOT in WOT situations, the gauge is useless b/c the ECU is constantly going from lean to rich to keep a 14.7:1 a/f ratio. so the gauge may be telling you that you are running lean, but the engine runs lean all the time. it ascolates(sp?) between rich and lean all the time.

you're right.....I don't really know how it works. but it used to bounch back and forth from lean to rich. now it never goes above two bars on the lean side. could it be a bad guage? but I know for a fact that the o2 sensors are bad and when I got the codes read they said that if bank 1 and 2 show up (front and rear o2) then it's a good chance that the maf is bad. plus a buddy of mine had similar problems with his lightening and that's what it was. I know it's a completely different setup but I figured that with the same simptoms that might be the problem. what I can't figure out is why this all started with water in the intake and now it runs a little rough but not too bad....but other than that everything checks out ok. worst thing bout it is that now I'm afraid to run the no2. I just spent a lot of money to get it and it's pretty much useless.... :banghead:

by the way.....Elchicoloco you said that you could get me a maf for a v6. how much? and should I go with a OEM one or something else?

i have nto a clue how much, i've got a friend in a town over parting out his 01 eclipse.... i'll try and get ahold of him for a price on it


oem will work, i don't kno if you NEED a bigger one, you've got to have a crazy setup b4 u need a bigger one

if you did go w/ a GM maf then you'd need a standalone... i think... at least some Engine management piggy back

so the ECU was throwing codes? can you post them?

you pretty much just answered your question. the o2 sensors are bad. the gauge is getting its information from a bad o2 sensor. so therefore, the information is not going to be correct. replace the sensors and see if that fixes your problem.

how do you know the MAF sensor is bad? was that another code that was being thrown?

well I thought that there might be a cheaper way of handling the matter..(sorry but money doesn't grow on trees if you know what I mean) and as far as the codes....I don't know them right off hand but it said that both o2's were bad and they said that for some reason if both of them were bad then most likely the maf is bad. and I checked on mitsubishioemparts.com (or something like that) and they wanted like 350 or round there some where for it. (I'm kinda tipsy so forgive the vaguness and excuse the spelling) to be completely honest I make like 350-400 a week and pretty much all of it goes to my car....but it can only stretch so far...lmao.....okay I'll shut up now....wow......

ok i can get the MAF for you, anything else you want? he's parting the whole car! btw its a GT sporty w/ not enough extras, 2000 fed spec

...125 or so for the MAF

well crap....that sounds good but it'l be like 2 weeks till I can come up with the money. mine's a 01 gt fed spec 5spd. prolly doesn't but does it matter that his is sporty and mine's a 5? and how do you propose to do the purchasing and shipping for this? I'VE GOT IT!!! you could just give it to me and ship it no charge and that could be my christmas present! thanks man!!! what a guy!

HA!! its not mine, so if it was all mine i'd do that, but its my friend's and its 125 + shipping as far as i kno, shipping can't be more than 6$ on this piece, and i kno it'll ahve to be wrapped in a ziplock and fragile plastered all over it.... EH oh well

if you've got paypal i can work that out somehow, or a money order errrr whatever makes you most comfortable
Maf's are all the same, ECU's are different, so it wouldn't be that
and i'm pretty sure his is a fed spec (2000)

have you talked to a mechanic to make sure this is the correct item to fix it? i'd have for you to buy something you don't need

ya....actually I haven't talked to really ne one that is sertified to make that assumption. but from what I know that's prolly the problem.....but an update......I've been smelling coolant from the exhaust. I sure as hell hope that that doesn't mena a blown head gasket......dohhh!!!!!!

coolant is a bad thing, its a good smell, but a bad bad thing

https://www.mitsubishiparts.com/oe_parts_catalog.html has the o2 sensors for like $92.

^^ that's awesome, i didn't kno there was a site for oem parts...

^^ that's awesome, i didn't kno there was a site for oem parts...

yeah i've used the site a couple of times to get parts. since its located in washington state and im in SC, ground shipping takes forever.