P020F: Cylinder 6 Injection Timing
What to do
Ask whether the timing chain has been assessed, especially on a high-mileage six-cylinder engine. A stretched chain affects the cylinders furthest from the drive first, and it sets per-cylinder timing codes that look exactly like injector faults — replacing an injector will not fix it.
Mention any rattle on startup that lasts a second or two. That is the classic sign of a worn chain tensioner and it is genuinely useful information here.
If injectors have been replaced recently, ask whether the calibration codes were programmed in. An injector fitted without its code sets this fault with a good part.
What this code means
Injection timing on cylinder 6 is not where the module commanded it to be.
On a straight six this is the last cylinder and the furthest from the pump; on a V6 it is the last of the second bank. Both positions share the same property — they are at the end of a supply run, so they feel a pressure shortfall before the cylinders upstream of them do.
The straight six deserves a specific note, because it has a failure mode the shorter engines do not. It is a long block with a long fuel rail and a long timing drive. A stretched chain changes the relationship between the crank and the cams more at the far end than at the drive end, so the last cylinders drift first — which sets per-cylinder timing codes that look like injector faults and are not.
Check chain stretch on a high-mileage straight six before condemning an injector, particularly where the codes are creeping along the block from one end.
Otherwise the family's rules apply. The module infers combustion timing from crankshaft speed, so a weak burn reads as a late one, and compression and glow plug faults on this cylinder produce the same code as a bad injector. Eliminate them on that cylinder rather than assuming.
Likely causes
Start here
- Worn or leaking fuel injectors · specialist
- Failed fuel injector · specialist
Less common
- Stretched timing chain · specialist
- Low fuel pressure · moderate
- Worn timing chain tensioner or guide · specialist
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Community experience
Be the first to write this up
Nothing posted about this yet. Whatever you found is worth writing down — even a dead end saves someone the same afternoon.
What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
Sign in or create an account to add what you found about P020F.