[artthur]

KevinST,

This does sound like the MAF (as Audi prefer to call it)

You can try to clean it, but I cleaned mine and did not improve the situation. It is found in the pipework on the engine side of the intake system immediately after the air filter (so RHS side of the engine bay, just to the left of the air filter housing)As usual it is a little black plastic gizmo with a fiddly connector and a couple of wires attached.

Be careful if you do take it out to be cleaned, because they are VERY FRAGILE. I understand the active part of the meter is a filament, but I couldn't find one on mine - maybe it burnt away.

When mine had gone the car was a pig on cold days, was difficult to change gear smoothly and gave a noticeable lag followed by a huge burst of power at about 4,000rpm - I thought it was my driving (as if!!)

A faulty MAF does not show up on any fault logging system if it fails the way mine did. When failure occurs, the engine management system uses a default set of parameters to run the engine, which are close enough not to notice it too much unless like me you are pedantic about "feelings" The car will run with a faulty one for a long time - in fact I bet for ever.

Mine was diagnosed by a consciencious Audi technician and when the new one was fitted, the car was transformed back to its former glory.

Hope this helps.

arTThur.