Car Not Starting? No Power? Troubleshooting

After spraying the mass airflow sensor (MAF) with brake cleaner, my Golf now only has minimal power on the highway. First, it started to stutter in the 4th and 5th gears at 3000 RPM, and then it completely lost power (limp mode?). The fuel consumption display only showed 12 liters per 100 km at full throttle, and the power felt like only 50 horsepower. Is the MAF sensor completely broken now? The idle speed is stable, but there's a lack of power in every gear.
I would appreciate it if you could provide me with some more information before I take it to the workshop.
Could the diesel filter be clogged due to operation with biodiesel, especially after a single fill-up with regular diesel?
Best regards, Erwin.

Hello,

Have you ever connected a diagnostic tester?

Sure, here's the translation:

'Forget about biodiesel: I have two TDI cars (a Golf and a Passat) that have both...'
Both cars have been driven with biodiesel for 1.5 years.
'Occasionally, I also use regular diesel. No problems. In my Passat, I replaced the filter two weeks ago (it had been in for about 35,000 km).'
'Since the car had previously been driven for approximately 110,000 kilometers with regular diesel fuel...'
I already changed the filter. I cut it open - the result is perfectly clean.

Best regards, Jürgen.

windl wrote:

After spraying the MAF sensor with brake cleaner, my Golf now only has minimal power on the highway. First, the engine started to stutter in the 4th and 5th gears at 3000 rpm, and then there was no power at all (limp mode????). The fuel consumption display only showed 12 liters at full load, and the power was like 50 horsepower. Is the MAF sensor completely broken now? The idle speed is stable, but there is a lack of power in every gear.

Hi Erwin,

If there's a noticeable difference between the state before and after a modification to the mass airflow meter (MAF), it naturally suggests that the modification was made to the suspected weak point (in this case, the MAF).

I would like to try taking a short test drive with a functioning mass airflow sensor (MAF) to see if that resolves the issue. That should be enough to determine if the problem is actually related to the MAF sensor.

Okay, so what actually happens then? I'm going to try it today. If the engine runs exactly the same way with it disconnected as it does with it connected, then the mass airflow sensor (MAF) must be defective, right? Or does it not even run at all without it?
Regards,
Erwin.

windl wrote:

So, what actually happens then? I'm going to try it today. If the engine then runs exactly the same way as with the sensor connected, then the MAF sensor must be defective, right? Or does it not even run at all without it?

Hi.

We've encountered cases here where the performance (subjectively?) was equally poor, regardless of whether the mass airflow sensor was connected or disconnected.
Unfortunately, I no longer remember how the story ended .

If you have time to search...

'Since Tuesday, the airflow has been recovering; specifically, it's drawing air into the first three stages almost as before, up to 3500 RPM. The maximum speed is now 160 km/h (previously 120 km/h). Could this be due to the lower temperatures, which are about 5-7 degrees Celsius lower than over the weekend? Could the mass airflow sensor (MAF) be measuring more accurately now?'

Regards,
ERwin.