be used, not carburetor or brake cleaners, which can be too aggressive chemically. Instead, the liquid phase of MAF sensor cleaners and electronics cleaners is typically based on hexanes or heptanes with little to no alcohol content and use either carbon dioxide or HFC-152a as aerosol propellants. The sensors should be gently sprayed from a careful distance to avoid physically damaging them and then allowed to thoroughly dry before reinstalling. Manufacturers claim that a simple but extremely reliable test to ensure correct functionality is to tap the unit with the back of a screwdriver while the car is running, and if this causes any changes in the output frequency then the unit should be discarded and an OEM replacement installed. Kármán vortex sensor A Kármán vortex sensor works by disrupting the air stream with a perpendicular bow. Providing that the incoming flow is laminar, the wake consists of an oscillatory pattern of Kármán vortices. The frequency of the resulting pattern is proportional to the air velocity. These vortices can either be read directly as a pressure pulse against a sensor, or they can be made to collide with a mirror which will then interrupt or transmit a reflected light beam to generate the pulses in response to the vortices. The first type can only be used in pull-thru air (prior to a turbo- or supercharger), while the second type could theoretically be used push- or pull-thru air (before or after a forced induction application like the previously mentioned super- or turbocharger). Instead of outputting a constant voltage modified by a resistance factor, this type of MAF outputs a frequency which must then be interpreted by the ECU. This type of MAF can be found on all DSMs (Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, Plymouth Laser), many Mitsubishis, some Toyotas and Lexus, and some BMWs, among others. Membrane sensor An emerging technology utilizes a very thin electronic membrane placed in the air stream. The membrane has a thin film temperature sensor printed on the upstream side, and one on the downstream side. A heater is integrated in the center of the membrane which maintains a constant temperature similar to the hot-wire approach. Without any airflow, the temperature profile across the membrane is uniform. When air flows across the membrane, the upstream side cools differently from the downstream side. The difference between the upstream and downstream temperature indicates the mass airflow. The thermal membrane