Is resetting ECU necessary after cleaning MAF?

[scottyja]

I'm coming up on 30,000 miles for my 08 WRX (no mods). I'm going to be replacing the air filter myself and have my mechanic do the other stuff. I read it's a good idea to clean the MAF sensor while I'm changing the air filter. I've read conflicting advise on resetting the ECU after I do this. Is it necessary to reset the ECU, or will doing this too often hurt anything? What sort of changes really require resetting the ECU if there are no mods?

I was planning to unplug the negative terminal, cleaning the MAF sensor, while it's drying replace the air filter and connect everything back up? Anything else I should/shouldn't do?

Thanks!

[EJ257]

Resetting the ECU would be a good idea, in this case, because a dirty MAF may have caused some odd learned fueling. While eventually it would balance out, I would rather start with a fresh slate.

Just disconnecting the negative terminal won't be enough; you'll need to drain any remaining power from the system as well (this is often done by depressing the brake pedal a few times).

[MainFrame]

Not necessary.. after about 100 miles it will adjust properly. Last weekend I pulled my learning view only to see max corrections in the MAF scaling. Upon further investigation I found one of the plugs on my inlet had split wide open creating a massive post MAF leak. After replacing the plug and driving 15 miles the scaling was just about back to where it should be.

[scottyja]

Just disconnecting the negative terminal won't be enough; you'll need to drain any remaining power from the system as well (this is often done by depressing the brake pedal a few times).

Ahh, I missed that somehow. Thanks for the update. I'll do it this weekend and see how things turn out. Thanks!

[teflon_jones]

Personally I'd just let the ECU relearn. It won't take that long versus disconnecting the battery and making it learn from scratch (if it takes any longer at all).