P2282: Air Leak Between Throttle Body and Intake Valves
What to do
Expect a rough, uneven or hunting idle that clears once you are moving, possibly with stalling as you come to a stop. That pattern — bad at idle, fine when driving — is the useful information, because it places the leak after the throttle rather than before it. Mention it if the brake pedal has felt harder than usual, since a leaking brake servo causes both. A smoke test is the quick way to find these and is worth asking for by name.
What this code means
Air is entering the intake manifold itself — downstream of the throttle, and therefore of everything the module measures.
This is the classic vacuum leak, and it has the opposite signature to P2281. The manifold is at its highest depression when the throttle is shut, so a hole here draws hardest at idle and progressively less as the throttle opens; at wide-open throttle the manifold is near atmospheric and the leak admits almost nothing. Combined with the fact that idle airflow is small to begin with, a leak here dominates at idle and fades under load — which is precisely the condition described at P2187, and the two codes stored together are one fault named twice.
So the pair is diagnostically clean and worth stating plainly: P2281 gets worse as you open the throttle; P2282 is worst at idle and improves as you drive. Which one the driver experiences narrows the search to one side of the throttle plate before anything is opened up.
The candidates are the short list the corpus keeps returning to: intake manifold gaskets, the throttle body gasket, crankcase ventilation hoses and their valve, the brake servo and its hose, injector seals on a direct-injection engine, and any small vacuum line that has hardened with age and heat. The brake servo deserves its usual mention because the leak is behind the bulkhead where nobody looks, and a firmer brake pedal is the clue that gets overlooked.
Likely causes
Start here
- Leaking intake manifold gasket · moderate
- Disconnected or leaking vacuum hose · easy
- Faulty PCV valve or split hose · easy
- Leaking throttle body gasket · easy
Less common
- Leaking brake servo or servo hose · moderate
- Leaking injector seal · moderate
Symptoms
Components involved
Information, not instruction
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Community experience
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