About a month ago my car wasnt running very well so i had been taking it easy, but then a guy in a lancer thought he was wild showing off in front of his woman so i had to give it a bit of caining and then i was just doing 60 down a street and a loud bang happened and my car stalled and apparently some guys seen a flame come out my exhaust. a guy then came over and helped me out and we eventually got my car started again with the temperature gauge unplugged, for some reason im unsure. The guy told me that if my AFM had blown my car could over heat so i had better be careful, yesterday my car over heated and i cracked the head. I am curious about what exactly the Air Flow Meter does, and how important are they, would i need to get a new one, and also could that have been the cause of my overheating and cracking of the head??? And also how do you know if the AFM is definately ****ed???

Dude, I have never seen a AFM (Air Flow Meter) to blow up and cause a car to over heat. The worst thing that would happen regarding the AFM is that it would make the car run way too rich, or too lean. Running to lean would make the car run hotter, but in a N/A I doubt very much it would make it overheat to the extent where you have blown your head or head gasket. What you described sounds like a backfire or a dropped valve or summfin fu@ked up. :? :arrow: Get your head fixed, check the AFM 2 outer pins when the ignition is on. It should read about 3.58 volts +- .5 volts.

AFM's measure the amount of air coming into the engine so the computer can decide how much fuel etc to put in. I just replaced my AFM. When it **** itself my car was running lean (cause of the false reading), it had no power when I put the foot down, it chugged really bad, lots of smoke coming out of the exhaust, and it just made the car undrivable.