Hi guys, so i have been having troble getting up hill for a while and the car doesn't go over 3k revs (60-80mph) so had it in at my mechanics tonight, he checked the egr blank and the turbo, actuator was working (on his pressure thingy) revved the car and found it was blowing so he took the pipe off, cleaned it and put some exhaust gunk on it, turned off my red eml and told me to take it for a ospin, still no better, any ideas its back in on saturday to get to the bottom of it, thanks

Clean the MAF. To see if it is the MAF that's causing the problem, take the car for a spin with it unplugged.

It's the maf, cleaned that back in april though, should i get a new one?

Try cleaning it again as that's the cheap option. Remove the whole MAF and clean the outside of it as well as you possibly can. Then put the entire MAF in a polybag (without any holes in it!), pour in about a teacup of meths or better still isopropyl alcohol, twist the top of the bag shut and shake like hell for 2-3 minutes. Rinse and repeat if you're keen. Don't use water to clean or rinse it!

Alternatively if you've got a suitable pin torx bit you can remove the element from the side of the MAF body and just clean that, but be extremely careful how you handle it. A can of brake/carb cleaner spray with a tube-type nozzle is probably the best thing to use if you clean it this way. The MAF element must end up spotlessly clean - no grease, specs of dirt, hairs etc. Be sure to let it all dry out fully before you refit it.

If your car is a pre end-of-2003 car, new Bosch MAFs can be had for a sane price (around £50-60 the last time I looked). Ones for later models are a lot more.

As your problem has come back not long after cleaning, check that the air filter element is a) not clogged up, and b) seated correctly in the housing.