P2280: Air Flow Restriction/Air Leak Between Air Filter and Mass Air Flow Sensor Bank 1
What to do
Expect reduced power and worse fuel economy. The checks are cheap and worth doing before anything else — the air filter's condition and fitment, whether the airbox lid is properly seated, and whether anything is blocking the intake duct. A rodent nest or packed leaves in the intake is a common and easily missed cause, especially if the car stands for long periods. Mention it if the filter was changed recently, as an incorrectly fitted or wrong-sized filter causes this directly.
What this code means
A problem in the section between the air filter and the airflow sensor. This is the one section of the four where the primary concern is restriction rather than leakage, and the title reflects that.
Why a leak here behaves differently from the others. Air entering between filter and sensor still passes the sensor, so it is still measured, and the mixture is not affected the way it is by a leak further downstream. What that air has not done is pass through the filter — so the real consequence is unfiltered air, carrying dust and grit, reaching the airflow sensor's element and then the engine. A contaminated airflow sensor under-reports, which produces the lean-off-idle condition at P2177 by a completely different route.
Restriction is the more likely reading of this code, and its usual causes are mundane: a filter left too long, a filter fitted incorrectly or of the wrong size, an airbox lid not seated, or the intake snorkel blocked. That last one is worth naming because it is genuinely common and genuinely surprising — rodent nests and leaf litter in the intake ducting are a recurring find, particularly on vehicles that stand for long periods.
So the checks here are unusually cheap: look at the filter, look at the airbox, and look inside the intake duct.
Likely causes
Start here
- Restricted air filter · easy
- Air filter incorrectly fitted · easy
- Blocked intake duct or airbox · easy
Less common
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
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Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
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What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
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