Thread: car won't stay running

Alright so threw some new parts on the car. Specifically:

Shift Kit
new zzp hub + pulley + new zzp coupler
Poly Mounts


The car was running without a supercharger belt for a while since the pulley decided it didn't like it's life and broke off. So finally got the new hub, installed it, put the 3.4 on, put new oil in and fired her up. Initially the car was running great while parked. I was wot it via the cable to see if anything was wrong and it sounded fine. Took it for a test drive and wot through a gear and all of a sudden, the car starts sputtering. We stop in a parking lot to evaluate, and we couldn't find the culprit. All the vac lines looked fine, and everything was connected, but it was sputtering and struggling to stay on and the filter was sucking in a lot of air. No CEL's either..

Anyways, got the suggestion to leave the cars battery unplugged over night to reset the pcm to recognize there is a supercharger back in the mix (maybe messing up the fuel trims, who knows). Come to start it the next day, it turns on and then dies right away. Even if I give it some gas to keep it alive, it'll die when the RPM's come back down. So got another suggestion that it might be the MAF sensor so decided to look into it. Unplugged the MAF and the car runs fine, idles high which is normal with an unplugged MAF, but it runs.

So took some MAF cleaner to it and let it dry. Checked the rest of the TB and everything looked fine, filter looked good, the screen looked okay, nothing inside to clog it.. So plug the cleaned MAF back in, and the car does the same thing, it starts, revs high and then dies. Tried a couple of times, and it would not stay on. To test, I unplugged the MAF, started it, and then tried it plugged in and it wielded the same results over and over. Car runs with MAF unplugged but without it plugged in. So conclusion is that MAF is bad right?..

Wrong, I take the MAF out of my brothers 02 GT and try it out, same exact story. Would not stay running at all, but unplugged it ran fine. Then decided to try the MAF on the 2000 Daytona my brother just drove home (mind you both the 02 and 00 run fine). His MAF kept the car on but it wanted to die and it was struggling to stay on the whole time. We got a CEL when the MAF's were unplugged and it was for the MAF, but nothing else popped up..

So.. yea what could be the possible problems?? The car is sitting in my driveway all day and I have a day off, so I wanna try some things out and see if I can't get it running again today.. I don't like driving my parents cars.. they're slow lol But seriously, thanks to anyone that contributes!!

Check all the wires and the connector for the MAF sensor?

He means the wiring that leads to the maf. Being directly over the exhaust..it's possible for the wires to degrade and fail. I think it was ScottytheDogger that had rewired his TPS or MAF after similar issues.

i had dry wire 6 inches from the plug into the harness, from the maf and ait sensors. i replaced both sensors, code would come back, found the pig tails were dead, changed them and code went away, but my car was running pretty much ok like that. no staling or anything.

if you take the connector off, and bend the wires at the plug to see if they have pulled from the plug, or have cracks and or missing insulation. once air gets to the wires that pig tail is on borrowed time.

Only other test you could do is to check voltage etc on the connector.

has anyone found a solution to this? my car is doing just about the exact same thing, if i keep it running with my foot it runs fine, not acting like it is at loss for fuel.. my car won't even start unless i give it a little bit of throttle and hold it at operating rpms.
but with the maf unplugged, it works just fine.. and like he said of course, idles like it has no maf but it will run.
i know keeping a car running with my foot is no good and it's rather annoying so i hope someone has some input on this..

Edit: my mods are in my signature and haven't done any recent mods.

If it runs with the MAF unplugged but not with it plugged in, then its the MAF.

well i just put a new one on a few weeks back from a car i got. it ran perfectly fine, and it only intermittently has this problem. sometimes i'll go out and the car will start right up and idle fine and drive just fine.
only sometimes it will do this, and not very often, that it won't start without a little throttle.
is there something possibly ruining my MAFs?

New info: got In the car this morning, sensor plugged in, car started right up and idled just fine, drove just fine.
Got to work, shut the car off. Then out of curiosity, tried to start it again and it wouldn't start up without making it run with my foot, yet again.
So it seems like it only has the problem once it warms up?