Typical Corolla Power issues

[Dave W.]

I saw an old post about a guy with a 2000 Corolla which wouldn't get enough power. I know about this as my 2013 Corolla with 270,000 miles is starting to loose power, and the fluctuating idle dips below the minimum spec 650rpm whenever it wants to. It has lost power so many times before. Replace the filter and it seems well for a while. I put in some cataclean for  those oxygen sensors and it seems well for a while. I clean out the mass airflow sensor and it seems well for a while. I replace the coils and plugs. This worked for the longest time. I'm an UberEATS driver, and I want to move on to carrying people, but I don't know how I'll get up Avon mountain in Connecticut with a load of people. It shifts down, but it doesn't want to. Does this car have a kickdown cable that might have become elongated? Oh, and it helps if I put some thick motor honey in there, but only for a while as before. It practically lasts only for 1000 miles this stuff, and I do that in a week. I'm loosing about 400mL of 0w20 synthetic motor oil per 1000miles. I know that's within Ford specs, but definitely it's the first time my Corolla has lost oil. No blue smoke yet. My overall guess is that oil is leaking onto the oxygen sensors and eventually coats them with soot and they fail to function properly. That and the loss of compression from wear and tear. Terribly disappointing after changing the oil religiously since it was new. Also, the mass airflow sensor and the wires just before it might have become fatigued if I had done so well after replacing the coils. Or the oxygen sensors themselves. After all I've done it just goes back to sluggish which threatens to stall on me. I've heard that the throttle positioning sensor might also be cause for worry, but I cannot fathom the whole thing that they said as the reason.

-Dave W.

[DeTomato]

Usually the MAF is faulty if the idle fluctuates. It the MAF wiring looks ok, it probably still works ok. Easy way to try is to see if it runs without it connected, which it probably won't. Recommend also try giving the MAF sensor a clean with a cotton bud and some contact cleaner spray, but don't over do it.

[Dave W.]

Okay, I've cleaned the MAF several times before. Always it had worked and always only for a short while. I've seen kits to replace the multiple wires leading up to the MAF. Looks difficult. As a warning, the MAF cleaner is too strong for the plastic on the plug part. It will tend to deform. Definitely that contact cleaner should be used instead. I think instead that someone put sugar in my gas tank, because every time I clean the fuel system I'm back to good, and then its back to bad in a while. Hard to figure how they had gotten in there with the locking gas cap door.

[DeTomato]

Definitely use contact cleaner on the MAF. Which otherwise seems to suggest its getting re-blocked in the fuel line filter system?