MAF and 1997 E420
 

A friend of mine just came by and told me her 1997 E420 with 59,000 miles was just diagnosed with a bad MAF and quoted about $550 including the code reading to fix it. What does the MAF do on this engine and can the car be driven like this with out damaging anything?

MAF is the hot film mass airflow sensor. It measures the amount of air entering the engine. It can cause some running problems if it is functioning incorrectly and it will fail inspection if it is brought for inspection at a state that does emmissions testing.