1995 Ford Windstar, 222300 miles, automatic, 3.8L. I don't know what transmission. I guess it's the original one. I never had it replaced since I bought it ten years ago.

A few weeks ago, my car turned on like normal, but it died 20 seconds later. I tried starting it a bunch more times but it would only run for about a second before dying. I rented a scanner from Autozone (Innova 3130Lat) and got these codes: P0174, P1407, and P0171. (The seven visible I/M monitors at the top were all green/solid.) I ended up disconnecting the MAF sensor and my car would run. It would randomly die on the road and had quite horrible gas mileage (you could practically see the fuel gauge falling), but it would get places and after it warmed up it would die less. There was a mysterious lack of MAF sensor cleaner in my town that week, so I bought the last can (in town) of CRC QD Electronic Cleaner and used that to clean my sensor instead. It wasn't that dirty, or in any way as gunky as they are in youtube videos, but I cleaned it anyway. That didn't fix it. The little wires were not broken. I also noticed that the air filter housing lid wasn't screwed down all the way and the filter had fallen down on the engine side. One of the screws was missing and one of the mounting points was broken off so now it has a new filter (the $6 job from NAPA) and some gorilla tape around the edge where it won't screw down anymore. 

A month or so before what's happening now, my battery wouldn't start my car one morning. Autozone said it was fine and I just needed to drive more. For a year, I had been driving once every two weeks to forage for food half a mile away because of lockdowns. Since then, I haven't had any battery problems and have even cranked the engine loads of times in a row trying to figure out this current issue.

For a couple of years, the normal for my car was that I'd have to give it gas when starting and to always be giving it gas until it warmed up after a few miles because it wouldn't idle otherwise. Even after that, it would sometimes die when I was coasting to a red light. (The light I could count on it happening was at the bottom of a big hill.) Also, to start it without lengthy cranking, I'd have to turn the key part way and wait a couple of seconds before turning the key all the way.

Since I was at the end of my ability to figure things out, I took it to Pepboys for a diagnostic. They said they couldn't complete the diagnostic without me paying them hundreds to replace the MAF sensor. I saved 5x $ by replacing it myself (Duralast DL-6136). But, it didn't fix the problem. My car still wouldn't go places with the MAF sensor connected. If I wait overnight before cranking the engine again, with the MAF sensor connected, it'll do that 20 seconds before dying thing again, but I still have to have my foot on the gas. (I can also get it to do that without waiting overnight by disconnecting and reconnecting it or some combination of that and cranking it without it connected before reconnecting it.) I noticed that it will increase the RPM's on its own a few times before dying. Since Pepboys's advice seemed to be wrong and since it looked like they were just trying to get me to pay them to throw random parts in to see if that would fix it, I went to a different garage.

After resetting the codes (by disconnecting the battery), things got worse. The random dying on the road with the MAF sensor not connected turned into dying after ten seconds (or 5 or whatever it felt like) when I first started up in the morning. After a few miles of cranking, driving, dying, it'll warm up enough to let me drive more reasonable distances before dying. The only code the scanner reads now is P0102 (the I/M monitors are MIS, FUE, CCM = green/solid; CAT, O2S, HTR, EGR = red/flashing). Seven miles of that on some back roads and I was at the new garage. 

Before looking at my car, the guy at the new garage bad mouthed Autozone parts (as in new parts are always broken). When he came back he said my new MAF sensor was broken. There was an Autozone next door so he gave me the part and told me to go get a warranty replacement. I did that, but since it wasn't in stock, I had to wait a day for it to come in. The repair guy put the old part back in (because it also has several inches of metal tube needed to complete the connection of the air filter to the engine) and told me to come back when I got the new part (so he could put it in or after I put it in myself) and he'd finish the diagnostic. He also said that he thought that the Idle Air Control valve might be broken as well.

While waiting for the new new MAF sensor, I cleaned the IAC valve. It was quite gunky and took the rest of that can of QD Electronic Cleaner. That didn't change anything. I still had to keep giving it gas to keep it from dying.

As a test, I removed the IAC valve and started my car without it. I figured if the IAC valve not letting enough air through was the issue, then letting it have all the air it could suck might prove something. I can get it to run that way without having to give it gas, but every two seconds the RPM's will jump up and come back down. (It sort of bounces between something like 500 and 2000.) I didn't want to do that for very long, so I don't know if it settles after a while. It's the same behavior with or without the MAF sensor connected.

I'm assuming that the technicians at both garages checked the hoses and whatnot, and the electrical leads to the MAF sensor (and IAC valve) before telling me they were broken. The hoses look fine to me and I don't have the skill to test if electrical wires are working correctly. So, I'm stuck. The new garage guy can't finish figuring out all what's wrong because the part I keep being told to replace as a requirement to diagnose the problem isn't fixing the problem that's keeping every technician I meet from doing a proper diagnosis.

If the original MAF sensor truly was broken, something should have changed when I replaced it (assuming neither of the replacements were also broken). Am I looking at a second broken brand new replacement MAF sensor, or was it the IAC valve all along? Or maybe both?