hey guys i have a check engine light on my audi.....and the problem is "high air flow incorrect." And I heard that I need to replace my mass air flow sensor....is this a big problem.....does anyone know how i can fix it....and is their anything else that can be the problem? Thanks

 

If it's the MAF it is very easy to replace, but it's expensive. If it's not under warranty, you'll be looking to shell out $350 - $400 from the stealership.
Did you get it VAGed? How do you know what the CEL is warning?
Have you had your coolant sensor replaced with the latest OE version?

 

Not bad at all. It is a fairly common problem. I just did mine about four months ago. As for a fix, try cleaning the wires inside the sensor itself. Have you recharged a K & N filter lately by any chance? That can do it. I paid about $300.00 for the part and did it myself. When mine went bad, the CEL came on and when they VAGed it it came back with the long term fuel trim error code. I can't remember the code number, but I'll check and see if I wrote it down on the part receipt.

 

I did put a K&N filter in but that was after the check engine light.....and i even put the fuel injector fluid in recently thinking it would do something but it didnt . And I went to advanced auto parts........and they had this computer thing that connects under the steering wheel and it tells u the problem......and i dont know wat VAGed and CEL mean.

 

Well.. what the advanced auto parts tech did when he "...had this computer thing that connects under the steering wheel..." was the same thing as getting your car VAGed. A VAG-COM is a communication software that you can buy and use yourself (it typically is loaded onto a laptop) that reads the codes from within your car's ECU and displays them for you to diagnose. This is what the tech did for you.

CEL = Check Engine Light

Doose may be right. The MAF may need to be cleaned. Bear in mind that a K&N filter must NOT be so wet that it can sludge up the intake. If the K&N oil gets down the plumbing to the MAF, it will cause an error because the MAF will get jammed. If claening the MAF doesn't help, then you will need to ahve it replaced - but you can do it yourself.

Here's a great quote from a week ago on AudiWorld:
Sounds like a bad MAF offhand.... If you used a new K&N for a while or you re-oiled it liberally, you very likely killed the MAF. You can clean the MAF by removing it from the air intake system and spraying the filament wire with electronics cleaner. You can also use rubbing alcohol. In both cases though, you will find you need to remove the thin wire sensor element from the large round tube; that takes a set of anti-tamper torx type bits, which are available at some better stocked electronics/electronics specialty houses. You can also use the good old pliers approach too, but that will permanently mark the part and if examined closely would likely fail a smog check. The MAF is under recall from Audi, and it's also a smog part, so if you are just under 70K scoot into the dealer quick--it's a $400+ part.

My experience though is cleaning will help but not cure the problem; the interaction between the engine and tranny computers is too precise and a faulty MAF will still cause bad code problems, even after cleaning.

You could perhaps test the MAF as the problem simply by unplugging it and running the car in the default mode. It will turn on the CEL almost immediately, but engine should run correctly and well. If it does, get a new MAF for sure.

 

Hm my car has 53000 miles so if i take it to my nearest audi dealership....and its under recall i wont have to pay a penny? and thanks imolas4 that was a good reply

 

Sorry, but that part of the quote is out of context. The 7/70k warranty on the MAF is only good for the 2000 MY and the Bosch MAF that was stock on those models. Audi upgrades it to the more reliable Hitachi unit. If you fall under that category, then yes, your Audi dealer should be able to do the recall upgrade. The only problem you may encounter is that the dealer won't have a Hitachi in stock.

 

Bingo, that's exactly what I was thinking. Mehurrman, what did you find out? When I replaced mine, it was actually part of much bigger repair. In addition to the CEL coming on with the fuel trim error I had a low oil pressure warning. Turned out that was a clogged sump screen, so we did a new oil pump and cleaned the whole thing out in the process.

 

I think I missed this story Doose.
Can you repeat the story? I'm curious about the sump screen and how that came about.

 

Sure. I think that was the first time I was on the board here, with the sump screen deal. Ok, so I'm driving along on the beltway here at about 80 mph and I get the flashing red low oil pressure light on the center display screen. So I turn off the engine immediately and coast off the road. First I checked the oil level and it was fine. Then I restarted it and the warning was gone. So I drove it easy and slow home and changed the oil and filter (I was at about 3200 since last change). Didn't see the warning light again for about 2500 miles. I did the same thing, but this time I took out the pressure sensor and hooked up an analog guage to see what the pressure actually was. Just in case it was the sensor. Oil pressure was fine, until I loaded the engine or got above 3000 rpm. There actually is a dealer correspondence on the problem. I checked with a few dealers and the said that they do several of the sump screen replacements a week. If I had the AEB engine I could have simply gotten the little 90 degree bent pickup pipe with the screen on the end and been done with it. Unfortunately the ATW engine requires that you buy the whole oil pump. Well, I figured we're there anyway, and the car had 107,000 on it so I replaced the whole pump assembly, about $150.00. Before we actually did the repair I ran a quart of ATF in the oil for a few hundred miles to clean out anything that might have still been in the engine. Right before we did the repair, I changed the oil ATF combo about every 300 miles three times without getting the warning. Then, when I got the warning again, I called AAA and we did the repair. A huge amount of stuff has to come off that thing in order to get the pan off. The screen was pretty clogged when we finally got it off, and with the ATF in the oil, the oil filter medium was full too. I had to take it apart and see. If anyone encounters this and is considering a turbo upgrade, do it all at once. With the oil pan off you are 80% of the way to getting the turbo off. I've been about 5000 miles since the reapir and turbo/DV upgrade and oil pump replacement and all is well. The whole thing took about three days and by the time we were done, I was completely sick of driving that little Ford Focus. Made it all the better trying out that new turbo though.