Sambar Stag

Hi, all. I thought I would post this in hope that it may help other members/visitors here. My '98 A8 had started stalling out when slowing or coming to stop.It would restart easily, and work fine for a while. I scanned it with my VCDS and it showed no engine fault codes, but 2 faults in the transmission- 18265 and the 17087. Through research in previous posts, I learned that the 18265 Load Signal:error message from ECU can be interpretted as the MAF sensor not sending the right signal to transmission. The next week, the car stalled twice and stumbled going into 3rd gear. This time, I got a 16487 MAF signal too high code in addition to the 18265code, leading me to suspect the MAF sensor(or it's connections)
So I disconnected the MAF, cleaned its connection in the airbox, Cleaned the connections at the TCU top side, and underneath the car. The lower connection at the transmission had some oil on the outside, and pulled straight off easily. No oil on the inside of the connection, but when I put it on i noticed that it had a twist-lock on it. That lock had not been rotated when I removed it, that's why I could pull it off easily. So I thought,AHHA, I've found the problem as I rotated that lock till it clicked. Well, a short drive proved that that wasn't the problem after all.Same old stalling.
So, now I disconnected the MAF entirely and drove it for 2 days without a stumble. Sure,the MIL came on but the car drove pretty well. I was now convinced enough to buy a new MAF,put it in, and the car has been fine for a week.

Sambar Stag

Sorry, I forgot to mention that during all this I cleaned that thing with the CRC Spray twice, without a change. I can't seem to find a way to edit my post after submitting it; is there a way,senior members? Thanks.