Cause
Faulty particulate matter sensor
The soot sensor downstream of the particulate filter has genuinely failed, rather than being starved of power or fed a bad sample. It is worth being sure which, because the part is expensive and its connector is the commonest culprit — it sits under the vehicle in the exhaust stream, where road salt and standing water reach it in a way nothing in the engine bay experiences.
The element itself fails in two recognisable ways. Its self-cleaning heater degrades, so it never burns its electrodes clean and reports a permanently bridged, meaningless value afterwards; or the electrodes stop accumulating predictably, usually because oil or coolant reaching the exhaust has coated them.
A heater fault stored alongside is the tell that the sensor is genuinely finished, and it usually explains every other code the sensor has set. Where the connector is clean and tight and the heater resistance is out of specification, this is one of the more reliable conclusions in the family.
Typically a moderate job.
Codes this can cause (11)
Codes where this is a likely explanation first, rather than merely a possible one.
- P24AE Particulate Matter Sensor Circuit Likely for this code Moderate
- P24AF Particulate Matter Sensor Circuit Range/Performance Likely for this code Moderate
- P24B5 Particulate Matter Sensor Heater Control Circuit Low Likely for this code Moderate
- P24B6 Particulate Matter Sensor Heater Control Circuit High Likely for this code Moderate
- P24B7 Particulate Matter Sensor Heater Resistance Likely for this code Moderate
- P24C7 Particulate Matter Sensor Temperature Circuit Range/Performance Likely for this code Moderate
- P24D1 Particulate Matter Sensor Regeneration Incomplete Likely for this code Moderate
- P2AB0 Particulate Matter Sensor Processor Performance Likely for this code Moderate
- P24B0 Particulate Matter Sensor Circuit Low Moderate
- P24B1 Particulate Matter Sensor Circuit High Moderate
- P24DA Particulate Matter Sensor Exhaust Sample Error Bank 1 Moderate
Information, not instruction
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