Precisely two years ago I had the old 'give it some welly -> turbo cuts out -> like driving a 1970s diesel golf filled with bricks until you turn off and restart the engine' problem.

This was fixed by buying a new MAF from the stealer and fitting it myself.

It's now happening again. Do these things really only last two years? Or should I perhaps take a page out of this thread and get a mechanic to check it and see if perhaps the turbo is sticking before I just throw another £60 on another MAF?

Cheers!

2002 1.9 110bhp TDI Octy

I still have the original MAF on my 2003 TDi, but then how long is a piece of string. Could well be the sticky turbo problem, have a look for someone near caerfilthy with VAGCOM who could check for error codes - look in the vagcom forum, there are a couple of codes you get with the sticky turbo problem. Generally with MAF problems, unplugging it should make it better so you could try that too.

What's the mileage and what sort of driving do you do?

Had a brand new 06 MK1 TDi and the MAF lasted only 20000 miles.They fitted a Bosch one after and that was still ok when i px the car in at 45000 miles :confused:

trudlenut: yeah, fatty5000 did the VAGCOM thing for me last time... after trying to clean the old MAF I just replaced it, but the car's done maybe 10000 miles since. Mileage is 77xxx, driving is Caerfilthy - Cardiff and the surrounding area. Daily commute is maybe 15 miles each way.

Is leaving the MAF unplugged really a good idea? I got the impression it wasn't something you wanted to do for long.

There's a few things I want a mechanic to look at anyway so might just do that (it's not been happy cold starting this winter either, which predates the turbo problems).

you only need to unplug the MAF for a short while and see if it goes better. When you unplug it the ecu uses default values instead. You don't need to run it like that for any length of time.

I'll give that a try and see what happens. A pretty sure way to cause the problem is to hit 70mph in fourth gear (as one might where the sliproad is short) so I'll go do that.

I think as others have reported it tends to happen at 3000rpm.

I had the same trouble not so long ago.And Yes,the 3000rpm thing was the cut off point. I have a 2002 Octavia TDi,and still the original MAF.Theres 126000 on the clock.

Got the problem sorted last week,,just as I was going to buy a new MAF,,it turned out that one of the Vacuum hoses at the back of the engine had split. It was one of the hoses coming from/going to the "Y" splitter. 5 min job for the Mechanic to fix,,and the car is going great since. Turbo kicks in,and has No bother passing the 3000rpm if required.

Hope this helps?

My maf failed just shy of 150000mls couple of weeks ago on my 110tdi, one min fine next nothing at any revs no fault light apparent. I tried engine off and restart a few times with no improvement after a short test drive. Got home tried to give it a clean more in hope than anything else but no joy. Then i unplugged it which made it drivable but still pretty bad. I managed to get a Bosch replacment from TPS next day and once fitted the performance was back. The old one was stamped 2002 so must have been original fit.