Thread: MAF problem or is it something else?

A couple of weeks ago my car started having problems shifting gears some of the time, seemed like transmission shudder so I poured in some shudder guard. This didn't help/hurt the problem. Then two days ago my SEL light came on, I took the car to Advance and they said my MAF sensor was low. The guy who checked it out for me instructed me to unplug the MAF sensor and try it that way - if the shifting problems went away then the MAF was the problem, if not then it was something else. Well, the problem didn't go away. Was his advice correct?

Also I've noticed the following coming other things going on which may/may not be related - upon start up the engine RPM will bounce around (maybe 1/10 starts or less), also sometimes when accelerating the engine will have a different sound to it - not the typical strong and speedy accel more of a slow and wimpy sound to it - these other two problems have been going on for a little longer than the transmission shudder. I don't mind replacing the MAF sensor and I'm willing to do that but I don't wanna spend $150 for something that won't fix my problem.

Thanks for the reply.
Actually the SEL light went off yesterday, not sure why. My transmission fluid was replaced 5k miles ago or so - it looked good when it was replaced, but figured after 100k miles it was a good time to change it out. The transmission problems seem to be doing better as well. I really don't understand how any of the problems would go away on their own but I'm not going to complain. I haven't driven it enough to say all my problems are fixed but its definitely doing better.