First a big thank you to the guys at MX5 Heaven for the speedy delivery of my replacement air flow meter (AFM) at the bargain price of £55.00 delivered. Even better, it still had a new air filter in it, so that’s a few extra quids worth of kit! I am fed up waiting for various mechanics to do various diagnostics so I thought I’d crack on while I’m waiting. The obvious thing seemed to replace the AFM as the first mechanic has twiddled with that to get the engine running again. So here goes:

The AFM is at the front right of the engine bay on top of the filter housing.

You need to remove the connecting cable that goes to the top of the meter. If you look at the picture below you’ll see two screws either side – I’ve ringed them in red for those of you who aren’t paying enough attention. I have one thing to say – DON’T UNSCREW THEM!! – you’ll knacker the connection pins inside. It wasn’t one of Mazda’s brightest ideas to make them look sooo appealing, but don’t do it. The arrows point to a wire C clip that sits in the groove visible in the photo.

Use your fingernails or a screwdriver to lever it out of its groove and the connector slides off easily with all the connecting pins still intact! The C clip will stay in position around the fitting of the air meter.

Take it off the connector but be careful, it’s a twangy little blighter; very springy and mine made a mad dash for freedom into the lawn taking me twenty minutes to find it! It’s nothing more than a glorified paper clip; but put it to one side, somewhere safe.

Next remove the big plastic air trunk by loosening the screw on the jubilee clip. Give it a wiggle and a yank and it comes away.

You then need to remove the bolts on the air filter housing as the AFM is attached to the top of it. You can check photos on removing the air filter top in this post.

The top of the filter housing and the AFM will come away. Put the new AFM in place and screw the nuts back in to fix it to the bottom of the air filter housing. Push the air pipe back on and retighten the jubilee clip. Take that blasted twangy C clip and fit it onto the end of the cable connector back into the grove it came out of. Then push the cable connector onto its fitting at the top of the AFM – it just clicks back into place.

There all done! And does Maurice sound any better? Answer – No.

Poop – anyone know a good mechanic?

Other stuff you might like.

• What you need to know about engine oil…
• How to change the oil on your MX5
• What does an air flow meter do…?
• Changing the sparkplugs on an MX5
• Changing the air filter on an MX5