Thread: total power loss and p0102

hey guys i havent had any issues lately, until today. i was in my girlfriends 98 gp gt 3800 with 129k miles, bone stock. She mentioned that it felt like the trans was slipping on her at cruising speeds so we took her car out for dinner and I found out what she was talking about. At first we had no cel but you could feel the car intermitently driving down the road have a complete loss of power (like a miss on all 6 cylinders) for lack of better terms. So we started back home, went to get on the highway and gave it some gas to get over and just like before, total power loss like a horrible miss on and off rapidly for a few seconds then it cleared up. Got it home, went to leave again and about 5 miles down the road the cel came on. Turned around took it home and scanned it and its showing a p0102. What are the chances that a failing maf can cause something like this, or is there anything else i should look into while in there? thanks in advance for any help

Oh sure it can. You can always try cleaning it first since they're pretty expensive. You have to buy the specific cleaner that says Mass Air Flow sensor cleaner on it. Check out the wiring and connections too. If that doesn't work it will probably have to be replaced. It seems some aftermarket sensors fail often, and many buy oem to avoid failures.

OEM's are nearly $300 at auto parts stores. I suggest buying online from rockauto or amazon, they will be around $170.

thanks for the reply, come to think of it i bought one for my old gtp before i sold it and i believe its got a lifetime warranty so i should be able to swap it out lol. Ive never had one go to the point where it would make the car cut out completely like that, kinda makes things sketchy merging on the highway

If an aftermarket sensor has a lifetime warranty I suppose you wouldn't be taking any chances, so you might as well try that.

And sometimes it happens like that. It seems it wasn't sensing 100% of the air, causing it to run lean.

If you have a pull it yourself JY with decent prices. that's where I try and get them.

well i found out the hard way the mafs from 98 cars are different than the ones for an 01, buttttt the perks of working at an auto parts store, my boss is gonna let me swap my old warranty part out for a new one that will work for the $20 difference. thanks for all the help guys, im 99% sure a new maf is gonna fix it, and im sure the new plugs and wires will help too.

well got the new maf in today, and was shocked when i pulled the plugs. they had 139k on the originals, and 5 out of 6 were gapped at .70 and one at .80. hard to believe the car ran as good as it did. put the new plugs and wires in it and it feels like a brand new car.

i put in some delco iridiums 41-101 i believe was the part number lol, whatever the factory replacements were. gapped at .60 and it feels like it can get out of its own way again lol

Those are the best plugs for a stock 3800. And that's a decent amount of extra gap on them, but that's pretty good for 139k, good plugs. Plus our engines have strong spark so it can handle that. Good job on restoring "like new" performance.

best part was the gril was happy with it, so in return im happy with it haha. Especially since i put up my toy for the winter today and im driving my dd which i can run faster than.. I tae advantage of her car when i can haha, seems like she picked up a couple mpg's too

the biggest thing i regret about selling my old gtp is the gas mileage you can get out of them, i sold it about a year and a half ago and i just bought an lt1 car earlier this year and my god its a gas hog.. but then again i have a heavy foot

Yeah that's the thing with the supercharged v6. Modding them makes them faster but generally keeps the mpg's the same. Cams will make it worse though, but so will your heavy foot once you realize how much more power it has lol.

haha my old gtp had headers, can tune, colder plugs, intake and still managed 18 in the city, now im daily driving a 03 vibe with 230k on it haha so once this finally dies im gonna get back into the 3800 scene i think, been looking at some gxp's but i like the supercharger whine way to much lol

well, its got a fram in it now which ive ran in my dd, my lt1, and my old gtp (until i did my cold air) and the new maf has a lifetime warranty on it, so ill let it ride lol. for the thirty seconds it takes me to swap it out it can go bad as many times as it wants

Yeah I wouldn't worry about it much. Just make sure the filter seats, really. I always put some oil around the seal on the filter before installing it. That makes sure absolutely no unfiltered air gets past, the oil would pick up the dirt even if it did. When I remove it months later it pretty much sticks to the housing a little.