Mass air flow sensor

[Paul22law]

I have a 1.8 this zetec 09 plate and my engine malfunction light keeps coming on n off and car is sluggish n hesitant, it's poor of fuel averaging 28 mpg,was told to clean the egr pipe but was clear, then told to unplug my air flow sensor I did that and the car ran perfect apart from the orange engine light being on,so iv cleaned my sensor and put back together and now my car is sluggish again, any ideas what to do next as I can't just keep it unplugged 

Thanks 

[dezwez]

if you unplug that mass air flow sensor and it runs fine again then that's telling you that you need a new air flow sensor

you may need to have the light turn off with a code reader

[Paul22law]

That's what I thought, lad at work said clean egr valve it's self not the pipe coming from it, will that make a difference or is it 100% air flow meter 

[ajzetecs]

10 hours ago, Paul22law said:

That's what I thought, lad at work said clean egr valve it's self not the pipe coming from it, will that make a difference or is it 100% air flow meter 

i've just purchased full airbox and sensor on the pipe from eBay, was having same issue and now its running like a beast, is yours petrol or diesel?

[Paul22law]

Diesel, runs spot on with air flow disconnected but shocking with it connected, I cleaned mine yesterday and still ran poor but does that mean mines had it,I'm picking another up today to try so il try that n hopefully a result. Don't know what else to try if this one makes no difference 

[ace666]

As said above its the air mass sensor thats faulty, replace that and all should be fine but bare in mind they are not cheep for a new one. With regards to the egr valve if you can clean it it can't do any harm.

[Paul22law]

Off to pick up a new sensor today, thought I'd unplug mine for journey but keeps stalling starting up,plugged it back in and started first time