I want to tinker with my car a bit and do easy bits first.

Cleaning a MAF sensor seems easy enough. Got my car with 33k miles...not sure when the last time it was done, but it cant hurt to do it myself.

How often should this be done?

My car is experiencing little shakes of the RPM needle when driving at a stead speed....give or take 100rpms. Would cleaning the MAF help that?

 

There is no set time or mileage interval for cleaning the MAF sensors, you just clean them when they are dirty. But of course it's hard to tell if they are dirty without pulling them out and having a look at them, and once you have done this you might as well clean them anyway!
Very easy to do, 5 minute job:
Unplug the wires (one plug on each sensor).
Undo the Torx bolts holding each sensor on (T30???), two on each.
Remove sensors from car, take to work bench, and spray the fine metal wires with MAF sensor cleaner (two spots on each sensor, one on the end and one on the side). I use CRC brand but plenty out there and make sure it is labelled MAF sensor cleaner.
Spray each wire five or six times, allowing a few seconds between each application.
Leave on bench for a minute or two to ensure the sensors are dry (although the spray dries almost instantly), then reassemble (and don't forget to plug the wires back in!).

 

thanks! im going to give this a shot over the weekend

 

Information for anyone interested.
I cleaned both my MAF sensors and their connectors last weekend to cure a problem with the engine idle speed continuously hunting between 650 - 1000 RPM. It cured the problem instantly and now the engine is somewhat more responsive and purky than before. The difference is quite astonishing especially when the engine is cold.

 

There aren't a tremendous number of miles on our XF, especially considering it's 10 years old. However, as mentioned above, it's a 10 minute job, so I clean it annually.