P0172 says my car, but wallet is empty?

[stolibears]

So my engine light goes on, checked the code and tells me that I'm running rich. I've checked my wallet and bank account...I think I need a new car.

any hoo, just getting the single code.

00 si

History on the car;

• just turned over 75K miles
• cold air intake, with Injen filter (corrected, thought it was a K&N) about 50K miles ago (never been cleaned)
• has high flow cat with the fouler O2 mod (which has worked great)
• is due for it's 75K tune up this Saturday (convenient)

I know this is a pretty vague error code and could be any number of things, just wanted to see if any one could help me with a plan of attack.

 

[Billy.]

i think you need to clean that filter and reset your ECU and tells us what happens

 

[Steven.]

http://www.obd-codes.com/p0172

 

[EGHseries]

Just Clean Your Air Filter And Clear The Code Like He Said And Go With It

 

[somejaykid]

yeah what they say man clean the filter first before anything else

 

[stolibears]

In conclusion I FAIL !!!! and have been demoted from "Vice Noob of CC" to "Back in the mailroom super Noob".

So, many years have gone by since I noticed a slight sweet smell of unburnt gas coming from the exhaust and casually dismissed it as a cause from the new exhaust and header I installed. The CAI had been installed maybe 2 years previous with the guy who helped me install it echo in my head "don't have to change it [air filter] for another 40K miles". Also the same guy show told me that the filter was K&N...so wrong.

First off I cleaned the filter with the K&N recharger kit. I was very very careful to make sure that I used very low pressure to rinse so as to not tear the cotton medium. Once it air dried I noticed that if I held the filter in the light there were holes in the cotton and you could see through some of the filter in places. The filter was so used up that either;

1. the filter was so dirty that pieces of the cotton got sucked into the engine
2. the cotton was so deteriorated that the cleaner basically dissolved it (which is what I hope happened)

Fail

Ran to Autozone and picked me out a quality air filtration unit of the gods, APC (mostly cause I was desperate to get the car running again).

Installed it, started the car...sort of sputtered at first and ran a little rough the first 3 seconds which was scary (probably cause the car was suffocated for so long, it wasn't used to fresh air). Ran the car around and would you believe, it runs better and no more smelly exhaust.



hit me!


now to my defense
-I am a father of 3 with not alot of money, and when I do get some money together I don't have the time to baby my car like I used to.
-the filter is so hidden (underneath the front bumper and covered behind plastic) I couldn't really see how badly the filter had gotten.

 

[EGHseries]

STOLIBEARS

move your air filter to the inside of the engine department and your filters might last a little longer lol

 

[Genuine Rolla]

that's interesting.