I did remove it from the car. That was some time ago, I do not remember all the details...just take care not to loose the bolts and nuts.
As said, the critical element is a small metal wire across the throat: this is a electrically heated wire and its resistance changes with temperature and thus with cooling by the air flow, and that is what tells the air flow. Mine was covered by kind of clay and that impaired direct air contact hence the trouble...but again, it was my fault since I had run the car without an air filter for a time.
Again too, consider the EGR alve is a definite possibility and for an easy try, I would disconnect it and see what happens. If sections are blocked open, that would not change much to the problem,though.But this is more related to erratic idle , not wo wide open throttle conditions.