can someone help me out with these SES codes?

[birdOFprey]

i was on my way to school today when my ses light came on.... i checked it with my predator and it said the two faults were P0171 and P0174 and that both fuel banks were lean..... i dont know what could be causing this because i dont have a program in the pcm or anything to lean the car out .... thanks for the help guys....once again much appriciated

[Injuneer]

It has nothing to do with whether you "have a program" in the car. It means its most likely running lean (or a "false" lean), because of a problem...... examples would be:

"True" Lean condition:

-low fuel pressure, dirty fuel filter
-MAF dirty, or faulty
-contaminated fuel, water in fuel
-large vacuum leak
-air bypassing MAF sensor due to torn bellows

"False" Lean condition:

-exhaust leaks before the O2 sensors
-misfires
-faulty O2 sensors (odd that both would go bad at the same time, but possible)

[Trash man]

not sure if this applies here. but the fords have a problem like that, when the MAF(Mass Air Flow) sensor gets full of like fuzz on the the two tiny wires that the sensor uses to determine how much air is coming in. we just usually take it off the housing and clean it with MAF cleaner or a q-tip and some intake cleaner. try that and reset the codes.

[birdOFprey]

alright guys ill check it out.... thanks once again for your help!!!

[Injuneer]

not sure if this applies here. but the fords have a problem like that, when the MAF(Mass Air Flow) sensor gets full of like fuzz on the the two tiny wires that the sensor uses to determine how much air is coming in. we just usually take it off the housing and clean it with MAF cleaner or a q-tip and some intake cleaner. try that and reset the codes.

Common problem on any engine with an MAF sensor and an "oiled" filter element like a K&N. If you overoil the filter, the MAF wires get coated. GM has issued a TSB concerning this.

[birdOFprey]

k im not sure if this is gonna help to diagnose the problem or just make me sound dumb.... when the light came on two days ago, prior to that i had been a very good driver....(no speeding, no jumping on it, nothing... gas prices are to high to mess around)... so last night on my way home from school i had to get on it to get over on the freeway, when i made it over to the slow lane and took my foot out of the gas, the light went off and hasnt come back on since ... does this give any clues to what it might be?.... thanks again guys!!!!

[Joe 1320]

If the computer doesn't see a fault after several run cycles, the ses light will go off but the codes are still stored for future reading. ALl that it means is that the initial code that was set could have been an isolated incident.

[Trans Am]

k im not sure if this is gonna help to diagnose the problem or just make me sound dumb.... when the light came on two days ago, prior to that i had been a very good driver....(no speeding, no jumping on it, nothing... gas prices are to high to mess around)... so last night on my way home from school i had to get on it to get over on the freeway, when i made it over to the slow lane and took my foot out of the gas, the light went off and hasnt come back on since ... does this give any clues to what it might be?.... thanks again guys!!!!

see thats the problem right there....these cars are not designed to be driven slow and they need the occasional 'sprints' to keep them in good condition..you know keep the injectors flowing..

[Trash man]

Common problem on any engine with an MAF sensor and an "oiled" filter element like a K&N. If you overoil the filter, the MAF wires get coated. GM has issued a TSB concerning this.

yea thats y i dont like to use K&N type filters on my car, my dads car is just a 3.8L v6 thunderbird. 135K on it, and countless hours of my time