What does this mean? You get a odb2 scanned code P0170 and it refers to something to do with fuel Trim Bank 1? For many occasions these codes and the jargon went over my head, trying to figure out how it works, what it means, what’s it all about. Confusion after confusion hit me like harsh waves on a stormy weather.
Skip the next 2 paragraphs if you don’t have much time otherwise read a short story and humour.
How’s that for describing what I went through trying to figure out why this mechanical trash cans break down on a regular time schedule. I mean cars, if you drive one that is older than a little human who starts schooling then you know what I mean. For those who’ve I lost, any car that is older than 5 years of age and perhaps made after 2000.
Ok, we get lots of codes from these scanners. I’ve grabbed a cheap odb2 scanner elm… something, doesn’t matter, connected to your car through wifi or blue-tooth. And if you’re not an average person of the human race then you are one of the black sheeps, or was that black goats, whatever, you’re brilliant in taking charge of your own responsibilities. You got it working and now scanning codes your car’s ECU (let’s see how many know this term – only the black sheep) is generating, but because we have not studied auto mechanics to a great depth we stand by, scratching our heads, trying to figure out how best we can fix this problem without taking the patient to the car doctor. Anyway, thanks for reading my rant. I will get to the point.
P0170 Fuel Trim Bank 1
Here are some of the possible causes. I guarantee you, you’ll be scratching your head after reading the list. But, I’ll do my best to help in some way.
- Intake air leak.
- Faulty Bank 1 – pre cat – oxygen sensor.
- Ignition misfiring.
- Faulty fuel injectors.
- Exhaust gas leak.
- Incorrect fuel pressure.
- Lack of fuel.
- Faulty mass air low sensor (MAF).
- Incorrect positive crankcase ventillation (PCV) hose connection.
There you have it, a big bunch of trouble-shooting you have to do before pin-pointing the problem.
In my investigations I was able to cross out a lot of those points off the list quite easily.
To solve this you need to change your everyday hat and replace it with your auto mechanics hat. You need to make a list of all the situations your vehicle is showing.
Here are some things to consider:
- rough idling,
- fuel smell,
- exhaust smoke colour (clear, black, white),
- age of the car,
- how much fuel do you have in the car,
- air filter,
- did it just started to occur in short notice,
- how is it when you drive at between 40 – 80 km/hour as compared to idle,
- and so on.
In many situations a bad mass air flow sensor (MAF), vacuum leak or fuel pump is the major cause of this problematic error code.
Usually, these days, and in my case (Holden/Opel Astra AH 2007 z18xe engine) when I did some troubleshooting with my MAF sensor in my car I found that disconnecting the MAF harness did not affect the car. So, this tells me the MAF sensor could be the major problem.
So, I went on ebay and got a cheap one and stuck it on and it basically fixed the issue. Mind you, you need to reset the ECU and drive the vehicle for about 20 – 50 kms in various speeds to help your car’s ECU to learn the fuel air ratio and program it to those conditions.
One other thing I should have mentioned before rapping this post, the problem could be more than 2 magical engineering components at fault. Sometimes, it pays off to keep records of when these components got replaced or repaired just in case somewhere in your future you need to refer to records that will help you solve the problem. So, leave some clues to the future you.
Thanks for visiting, hope this helps out, good luck!