running problems

[G2232]

So set off for work this morning get about a mile away from house and engine managment light pops on then pull up at traffic lights and engine dies. Try to start it again and wont start so leave it a few moments and try again still no luck, by the 4th try it starts again but they revs shoot straight up to 2000rpm and very slowly (and i mean slowly) drop back to normal 750rpm but then keps on fluctuation.
So i headed back home hoping to pop it on vag com but behold the laptop has now had enough and wont work, so i disconected battery hoping that will hopefully reset things and it has all seems to be running ok now but has anyone one got any ideas as to what the cause could be?

 

[davebnly]

As they are prone to fail my instinct would say your Maf is most likely. Wait until the problem happens again then unplug the connector from the MAF and see if it cures it. If nothing changes its obviously not the MAF thats faulty but if it runs ok once again when the connector is unplugged there's your fault.

 

[G2232]

to me it doesn't feel like the maf
the car is running fine most of the time
and surely the maf wouldn't prevent the engine from starting
it would just cause it to run lean/rich

 

[traumapat]

have you tried maf disconnection? bad maf on mine caused fluctuating idle.

vagcom should reveal the problem