Steve,

My $0.02. Why did your new air flow meter come without the potentiometer?

I have read that you can not accurately set the potentiometer, they are set when assembled by Bosch. I believe Stevebfl has mentioned this several times. HOWEVER, I also read that others have set theirs by installing it on the car and playing with it until they got the car to run right. Probably not what you want to hear since removing it is a pain in the arse! Been there done that.....a few times.

I also have a 16V and do all the work on it by myself. I also believe that my potentiometer has a problem. I would expect it after 145k. I have managed to avoid its symptoms by other methods.

There was an other member who followed my trials and journey of hell trying to get it to run right. He emailed me and offered to sell me a new potientiometer that he bought for his 16V. His mechanic installed it and played with it and couldn't get the car to run right. He ended up buying the whole air flow meter from the dealer with the potentio installed and...... his car ran fine after that. I know it is a bit antidotal(?), but I think there was a lesson there somewhere.

I have also watched the resistence values on mine jump all over the place when checking between those two pins. Drop me an email and I'll check mine out installed to see what values I get along the curve. Be aware that if our resting heights are not the same, even those values could be different.

You can clean the old one, if it is not totally destroyed, by using a erasure. Have you tried that??

Tinker