Air flow meter fault, symptoms

Air flow meter.

I have written about this before in another post but have decided to write about it in its own right. I'm talking about a faulty air flow meter. The best way to find this fault is with a test drive and to listen very carefully to the driver's description. It is no good sticking the vehicle on a computer because as lots of you have discovered it does not show up in the fault codes. Have any of you wondered why? Finding this fault is down to good old mechanical detective work.

The symptoms:

In the initial stages it is quite subtle. The van starts and runs as usual and drives off as it should you then notice that you are having to use a bit more throttle than you used to get out of the turnings; this may go on for some time. Next, in the ebb and flow of traffic the van is not picking up as it should, almost sluggish in the way it gathers speed pointing to a possible turbo problem or a worn clutch in some cases. Finally driving away from a stand still is almost impossible! You have to push down the accelerator pedal a lot just to get up any speed to change up to second gear. On lifting your foot off the accelerator pedal to change gear the vehicle speeds up while you are changing up. On pressing down on the pedal again the van struggles to gain speed. It feels like it is holding back, this is because the air flow meter is not telling the 'brain' the airflow has increased.

I'm sorry to say changing the crank sensor will not do the trick but what is a good idea is cleaning the ERG valve because it will be close to being blocked if the vehicle is being used for a lot of stops start. The combination of these two things will make it purr like a kitten.