Morning,

One thing I picked up after owning my SL a while was MBZs Illustrated Parts Book. Trouble shooting hard idle and wanting to check linkages, I took off my air cleaner housing and lo and behold, there sits the AMS/MAS? it appears to fit into a formed area in the bottom of the air cleaner housing with about a 1/2 inch hole in the top of that formed area so, I presume, air can reach the hole in the top of the sensor.

Attached is a picture of what I'm trying to describe. The grey shaded piece in the middle is what fits up into the air cleaner and I think is missing the little gasket/or what ever you care to call it.


That got me to looking at the whole housing to see exactly how that air got to the sensor. Found a corresponding hole in the top cover of the housing and it had a rubber grommet/gasket installed which appeared designed to make a tight seal with the bottom of the housing so air from outside the air cleaner reached the MAS. That gasket was hard and cracked so I bought and installed a new one.

Next though, it is clear the top of the formed opening in the bottom of the air cleaner housing does not rest against the MAS, since MBZ went to so much trouble to match holes in the top and bottom of the air cleaner housing and provide a gasket for the top to seal the air inside the air cleaner housing from ever reaching the MAS, I figure they were probably just as anal and want to keep hot air flowing over the engine from finding its way in there as well.

So, I pulled out my parts book.

Page 37 of the book has the heading, Air Cleaner, Group 09 015. That page clearly shows a whole pile of replaceable parts associated with the air cleaner, I found a mis-mash of nuts on my car, the bad gasket and even the inlet hose from the valve cover to the air cleaner was cracked. So I bought 1ea #29 and 11, 4ea #20, 2ea #35 and 1ea #38. Now I feel better.

But that page doesn't show anything to fit the bottom of the air cleaner cover.

So, I looked through more of the book and ended up on page 27, heading Injection, Group 07 015.

On the right hand side of the page in a box #38 is clearly shown what looks exactly like the grommet I am missing and it's numbered #47. So I ordered one, and what shows up -- a ball bearing. Talking with the parts manager, the answer I got was that I probably needed to order the repair kit for the AMS #44, since often they contained exactly the right part not available otherwise. So since it was only $25 I ordered it. It arrived, but no #47, just another ball bearing in the pack.

Now looking at my car, this ball bearing that keeps showing up will fit perfectly in the indentation on the top of the AMS through which air flows from the air cleaner, but what keeps it from bouncing out if the illustrated gasket #47 is not installed? Right now, my car has neither the ball bearing nor the #47 gasket installed. What do you recommend I do.

Chuck

Attached Images

Air Flow Sensor-a.bmp (59.9 KB, 122 views)