exchanging a MAF sensor between years

My buddy drives a 98 passat 4 cyl turbo, stick shift that runs fine. My wife drives a 2001.5 passat 4 cyl turbo, automatic that has a check engine light that after trouble shooting and questions here, I've gotten down to the MAF sensor. It's $325 for a new one and I was thinking of borrowing my buddies air filter box for a couple days to see if we can transfer the problem to his car, hence proove it's that sensor.
Any issues with the different years and transmissions?

should be the same

dose it run a map of a maf sensor. i think its a map sensor on the B5.5