Sluggish on kickdown

[jimbobsimmonds]

Hi all. My grandad has a 99 1.9TDi VW Sharan automatic. When you want to give it some pulling away or going up hill (essentially whenever the engine is under any load) it doesn't seem to kickdown properly; and when it is in the correct gear and will not go above 3000 rpm; this isn't a problem if it will allow me to shift into the next gear but it won't shift up to the next cog...

Net result is no performance on overtaking or pulling out and a hell of a lot of sitting at 3100rpm going up hills while doing 15mph...

Any of you got any idea what it could be; as being an OAP he wants to avoid going to the dealers or a garage unless he has to...

cheers

jimbob

[andy e]

if you can, get a fault code read, but it sounds like the maf meter [mass air flow meter]