Can someone with more experience give me a few tips please?

 

I have recently picked up a '59 plate petrol vRS and am loving it, aside from the small niggle that it would often hesitate under light - medium throttle, almost like it was reducing the boost. IT was fine under heavy throttle, but clealry that's not always an option around town!

 

Fast forward 2 weeks after collecting it and the CEL light came on, with P0101 code showing as a MAF sensor error. I read about this and found that my hesitation and the code coudl likely be linked, however the MAF sensor was frequently a red herring and the actual problem lay elsewhere. To avoid diving straight in to replacing parts willy-nilly, I cleaned the MAF sensor using the proper spray and reset the CEL, but the hesitation remained.

 

This eveing, about 100 miles after I reset it, the CEL came on again with the same code. However, once i restarted the car (leaving the code in place) it drove massivley better, far more smooth, more power and no hesitation.

 

My question is thus: does the ECU ignore MAF readings when that code is present, and uses some default setting? If so, that likely points the MAF actually being bad and giving weird readings when the code is cleared, and I should invest the £80 odd on replacing it?

 

Any advice from folk who have chased this error code before much appreciated!

It turns out not to have been the MAF sensor at all.

 

The car was in with my mechanic to have the control arm bushes replaced and the CEL came on when driving to him, so I offhandedly mentioned it and said I knew it was on and not to worry. He offered to do a quick investigation for me since he didn't think it likely the MAF sensor would have failed and he was right! It turned out to be a long hairline crack in one of the plastic pipes that was not visible to the naked eye, due to it's location and narrowness. They found it with a smoke machine and replaced the pipe; car runs fantastically now!

 

If only it was as easy to get Skoda to refund the price I paid for the new MAF sensor (which I still hadn't collected from them!) when I said that I didn't need it any more. I did get a refund, but it was more hassle than it should have been for something I never even touched...