Audi A3 1.9 TDI 110 BHP (ASV) - Sluggish when cold

Newbie Joined: Dec 10, 2012 Posts: 1

Hi Folks, I have a problem with my good old Audi which was now reached 209K miles and until now was running like new.

A few weeks ago I noticed that as a drive out began fine at low revs under 30mph. When I then got to the dual carriageway about 3 mins away and upped the revs and speed as the engine got to about 2000 - 2500 revs the car would jolt and got into what may be explained as a sort of limp home mode until I switched the ignition off and the back on and the problem would seem to correct itself with the car driving normally.

This continued until 2 weeks ago when the problem of power loss started to happen at low revs and at speeds of under 30 mph. In addition, turning the engine on and off didn't seem to make a difference.

So, over the last 3 days I disconnected the MAF sensor and ran the car but it didn't seem to make a difference.

I resorted to cleaning the intakes after the MAF sensor with this:10K BOOST DIESEL ENGINE POWER RESTORER

Halfords | 10K Boost Diesel Engine Power Restorer

I also added this to the fuel tank to clean the injectors and fuel lines : COMMA DIESEL MAGIC

Halfords | Comma Diesel Magic 400ml

and finally cleaned the MAF sensor removed from the car with: ELECTRICAL CONTACT CLEANER

Halfords | Halfords Electrical Contact Cleaner 400ml

Job was completed yesterday afternoon, coldish but not freezing UK winter day, about 4'C (37ish 'F maybe) and took it for a run, it worked fine and seemed to have corrected the loss of power at all speeds, town roads and motorways.

I also recall, the radio has gone into safe mode but the battery doesn't seem to have gone flat at all, which is puzzling.

Positives are: tick over is fine constant and stable around 950 rpm stays steady, no misfiring detected, no coloured exhaust emissions at all, not even before, only blue smoke whilst decoking with 10K. Fuel consuption average dropped from 50.4 to 50.3 on display and only by 0.1 over the least week.

PROBLEM :
Now, this morning, frost on the ground, wife starts car and drives 4 miles to work, right from the beginning it behaved as though it was in a tractor pull and wouldn't go over 20mph, similar to what it was doing before all this treatment. Turning on and off ignition made no difference.

Don't want to take it to a garage to have some silly code telling me wrong info, which will be costly, but thinking that MAF needs replacing. I understand this so far, but N75, vacuum hoses, EGR ? I have got a Haynes manual but not very good at locating these parts in the engine compartment, I only know roughly where they site in front of the driver, UK side !!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Joe