[LakeCocoa]

Hey everybody!

So I have been going on and off with my e90 318i n43 for a few months now. I have a severe problem impacting my experience with this car and this engine.

The problem being a very rough start when the car is "warm", for example if I drive the car for 30 minutes and then leave it to rest 30+ minutes, it would crank, and then sort of start struggling to start, almost like its running on 2-3 cylinders, chasing the start.

Cold starts in the morning are always great and it starts without a problem.

Also while in idle, the car randomly would start to shake and behave roughly.

While this is happening I could smell a very very strong odor of gas coming from the exhaust.

Today I decided to clean my MAF sensor with soke MAF cleaner. I did it and it made no difference whatsoever, so I unplugged the thing completely and tried driving.

I immediately saw some differences;
1. The car still has trouble starting warm, but struggles a lot less than before.

2. The fuel consumption dropped by 3 liters, I was averaging 12.7l/100km and now it sits around 9l/100km.

3. Low end torque, acceleration and the overall performance is better, the whole car sounds somewhat different, almost like the engine now has a deeper tone, almost droney.

4. The smell of gas from the exhaust is a lot more subtle now and is not nearly as strong as it was.

Now my question is, what could this mean, why does my car run better with MAF unplugged, because from what i have read on the internet, it should be behaving worse, even stalling without the sensor..

Thank you in advance.