I've spent the whole day fault tracing my Audi A5 2.0TFSI. After finally disconnecting the MAF sensor the car runs fine, except some lack of power and some DTC's of course.
The different problems I've had:
1) Fails to start (crank) sometimes
2) Sudden shutdowns during driving, a DTC readout showing 12-14DTC's at ECM, but none of them where pointing at the MAF sensor, more to a faulty ECU.
3) Fails to start completely (After being at the workshop for some paint job the car did not start and had to be towed back home since the workshop did not find the fault)
4) No connection to ECM in VCDS
5) Impossible to do a full DTC scan in VCDS since it was just shutting down when trying to read ECM DTC's (this happend after I fault traced CAN links, supply and relays)
But again, after disconnecting the MAF all connection and starting problems are gone. Still got a few codes after a test drive but I assume they are related (my readout are not in english so I will have to install the english version of VCDS and post tomorrow).
Of course I'm goind to buy a new MAF, but I have to ask:
So, can you really believe this is a MAF issue? is the fault monitoring and DTC inhibit handling this crappy in the ECM?
The different problems I've had:
1) Fails to start (crank) sometimes
2) Sudden shutdowns during driving, a DTC readout showing 12-14DTC's at ECM, but none of them where pointing at the MAF sensor, more to a faulty ECU.
3) Fails to start completely (After being at the workshop for some paint job the car did not start and had to be towed back home since the workshop did not find the fault)
4) No connection to ECM in VCDS
5) Impossible to do a full DTC scan in VCDS since it was just shutting down when trying to read ECM DTC's (this happend after I fault traced CAN links, supply and relays)
But again, after disconnecting the MAF all connection and starting problems are gone. Still got a few codes after a test drive but I assume they are related (my readout are not in english so I will have to install the english version of VCDS and post tomorrow).
Of course I'm goind to buy a new MAF, but I have to ask:
So, can you really believe this is a MAF issue? is the fault monitoring and DTC inhibit handling this crappy in the ECM?
)since I replaced the MAF and I have not been able to reproduce any issues during several test drives. It's just when my wife is driving she get the codes and indications and she is not happy about that 
. I start to believe that it needs several DCY's before setting the first codes.