meabh, if you remove the electrical contact from the MAF sensor, the engine will continue to run...but in the emergency setting, so without any sensor data at all, and in a way that nothing breaks...much too fat. You only do that in an emergency for short distances. Otherwise your Lambda sensor is very dirty again after a short period of time.
Yes, get the right spanner. Remember that the plastic used by Ford is very cheap and screw the MAF back on very carefully after cleaning. You only have to look crooked and the plastic threads are broken at Ford.
What you can try now is to clean the electrical contact of the MAF and let it dry. And delete all errors that are now certainly stored because the engine was running without the MAF.
Also clean the electrical contacts of the lambda sensor cables. Even a very small contact resistance will cause these sensors to work incorrectly.
