I broke my IAT on accident trying to remove a stuck stud on my N/A intake, I'm wondering is there any major downsides to not having one on the car. If so what are the issues and where can I source a replacement. Can I use one for a different car and rewire it to my connector or not. Thank you in advance for the help

 

the sensor is NLA from Mazda, N326-18-845. seems to be hard to find aftermarket too
Mazda used the sensor in basically everything from 86-92, so MPV, trucks, etc so used isn't too bad

there should be something from another car that works, but we haven't found anything yet.

 

I believe the IAT sensor on the manifold is used only to increase BAC duty when the car is hot. This is because hot air is less dense, so the BAC valve needs more of it to achieve the same idle. Basically, the ECU treats it like a switch, and just adds more duty above a certain temp.

The IAT sensor that matters for fuel metering is inside the MAF.

You should be able to drive around all day with the IAT in the manifold unplugged and have zero issues. Then again my idle regulation never worked properly back when I had the stock ECU anyways, so YMMV.