Runs rough, idles high??

Hi. I am having some issues with my 2003 Jetta 5 spd. I have 109,000 miles, new timing belt at 90k, cleaned egr and intake, new fuel/air/oil filters, etc. This seems to have slowly built over the last month or so. The car idles just a little rough, at about 950rpm. It also sounds just a little deep/grumbly at highway speed. I seem to have lost a little power and get a little bit of white smoke when accelerating modestly. The stangest symptom is that I can engage the clutch and acutally start driving off without pushing on the accelerator. On a flat surface I can get up to speed and shirt to second, all with no accelerator. I know that my egr weeps and should be replaced, but that has been going on for about the last 20k. I thought I could disconnect the MAF and see what happens. (am I right in thinking that it the black sensor looking deal in the air intake plumbing just downstream of the airbox?) I do not have a VAG Com and I do not have a CEL or anthing else beeping at me or lighting up. Any suggestions. Thanks

The stangest symptom is that I can engage the clutch and acutally start driving off without pushing on the accelerator. On a flat surface I can get up to speed and shirt to second, all with no accelerator.

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Thats not a problem. Thats a feature.

Have you checked all the fluids? Just to be sure - you wouldn't want to go looking for an electrical problem while the engine is ingesting lots of oil froma blown turbo oil seal, or drinking coolant from a bad gasket. We don't see a lot of idle speed and quality problems around here. Something sounds odd about what you are seeing.

You are right about where the MAF is. Since you have VCDS (vag-com) and can clear the code it will generate, trying the car with that unplugged seems like a fine guess (assuming you've checked for fluid problems). I'm afraid that interpretting the results may be problematic - it may not be clear whether the car runs better without it - if that's the case you'll probably want to log some data with VCDS and compare it to others' data. I don't think I can help you there.

Good Luck!

Fred