It's been a while since I've been on here...probably not since I got rid of my old 2002 X...but I've got a weird problem with my new(er) 2012 that I'm trying to figure out and I'm hoping someone here might be able to help.

So I've got a 2012 Pro4X with a bit less than 98,000 miles on it. It normally runs great, but every once in a while (usually, it seems, when I'm about to leave on a long trip or I need to get somewhere in a rush), it will start running like crap with really jerky acceleration and an inability to get it up to much more than 40 mph. Sometimes I'll get a check engine light, other times I'll get a traction control system light. Scanning the OBD always returns a P0101 (mass air flow sensor), sometimes as a pending fault. If I let the truck sit for an hour or so and restart it, it's usually fine. Likewise, if I simply clear faults, it also starts running fine. This issue pops up maybe once every two months or so, and it is so intermittent that it's gone before I can demonstrate it to anyone who actually knows what they're doing under the hood.

I have a K&N filter which I routinely check and clean as necessary. I've removed the MAF sensor and checked it--the first time I did, it was a bit dirty, so I cleaned it, but now it still looks clean.

I'm considering just buying a new MAF sensor and replacing it to see it that fixes the problem, but the fact that the issue sometimes causes a traction control light makes me think that it might be something else. The first time it happened, we had just had a big snow storm and I was turning a corner in a slushy intersection when it started, so I figured some sensor got clogged up or something. I was headed out of town at the time, so we took a different vehicle and I let the truck sit for the weekend, and it was fine when I got home. Since then it's probably happened 5 or 6 more times, so I just keep a Bluetooth OBD reader in the truck so I can quickly "fix" it, but I'd really like to know what's causing it so that I can fix it for good.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Jason

My 2011 Pro-4x throws the P0101 code every month or two. No effect on how it runs, but I also keep a Code Reader in the glove box to clear the code. It started doing this at around 95000 miles. I tried replacing the mass air flow sensor, which is not cheap, and ended up returning it because it made no difference. I have 105000 miles now and still get the P0101 code once in a while. Runs fine with or without the code, just an annoyance to keep clearing the code.