head start on P0172 and P0175

2002 Ford Taurus 3.0L flex fuel engine.

I'm going out to get more information in a little bit but here is what I have so far. My parents are down from the north and have been running E85 exclusively for a while. On this trip they have been using 'regular' gas. Emission light came on when they got here but we were on the way 2 hrs down the road. Engine stumbled a little at idle and a slight miss from time to time but otherwise ok. Got back yesterday, I hooked up my scan tool and found P0172 and P0175 (fuel trim system rich bank 1 and 2). I'm thinking MAF or MAP (whatever it is) since it set both codes at once so I sprayed some cleaner on the sensor wires. Air filter is new. Light stayed off in the driveway, I put it in reverse and it came on and is still on but I haven't hooked it back up yet.

Are there any readings I can provide to help diagnose this problem? I don't want them to get down the road into a 13 hour trip home and something fail.

 

I hope you find what the problem is and fix it

 

Reset the light after the cleaning and it came back. Here is the freeze frame if anyone has any ideas:
DTC that caused freeze frame data storage : P0172 (P0175 pending)
fuel system 1 status : closed loop
fuel system 2 status : n/a
calculated load value : 53.7%
coolant temp : 181
short term fuel trim bank 1 : -10.9
short term fuel trim bank 3 : -92.2
long term fuel trim bank 1 : -18.0
long term fuel trim bank 3 : 5.5
short term fuel trim bank 2 : -11.7
short term fuel trim bank 4 : -71.9
long term fuel trim bank 2 : -15.6
long term fuel trim bank 4 : 80.5
fuel rail pressure (gauge) : 57.9
engine rpm : 1210
vehicle speed sensor : 7

 

With those codes it could be any of the following: MAP sensor, oxygen sensor, throttle position sensor, fuel filter or fuel pressure regulator.

 

If you fixed it by cleaning the MAF sensor (the sensor, not just the screen), then the light may take a while to go away (on/off cycles)
Or you can reset it with your scanner and see if it comes back

As mentioned, it could be a lot of things

 

You can also disconnect your negative (-) battery cable for about 30 minutes. That will reset all of the codes.

 

Disconnecting the battery will not reset the codes on a 2002 Ford Taurus
A 1992 it would, not this one

 

I did not know that. I am a Mopar man myself and it still works on all the current year Mopars. Sorry for the misinformation.