Mass Air Flow Sensor

[JVultaggio]

Recently I was forced to drive though some high water during a bad storm. In doing so I had a splash on the motor from a wave of a big truck wake. The car started misfiring and the check engine light came on. I was able to drive the car home and park it in a dry area. The next morning I started the car and the check engine light was on still and the error code was for a random misfire. I have changed the plugs and wires on my 98 V6 3.1 and the misfire has gone away. I did not see any water in the oil or in the intake system.

Although the check engine light is still on and the code reading from AutoZone still reads random misfire and he suggested I change out my Mass Air Flow Sensor and or both the Coils. These are both expensive options and I feel the car is running fine is there any harm in not changing the Mass Air Flow Sensor?? Or is there a way to check to see if it is the coils or sensor besides buying both to see what turns off the check engine light?

[johnschmitt]

I think your best bet is to find out what is really causing the misfire code. I'm not sure how to check the maf, but you can get a device to test the coils for you, just be careful. They throw 30,000 volts. Changing parts until it works can get rather expensive.

Causes of misfire:
bad spark
bad air
bad compression
valve or ignition timing
and of course something else entirely that makes the computer change one of the previous 4.

rule things out until you have it.