P2676: Air Cleaner Inlet Control Circuit Low
What to do
Little or nothing to feel, and nothing at risk.
If the air filter has been changed recently — or the airbox opened for any reason — mention it. This actuator sits on the airbox and its wiring runs right where the lid closes, so a pinched wire or a connector left unclipped during a filter change is a very common cause and free to put right. On some vehicles the flap is vacuum-operated instead, and a hose knocked off in the same way does the same thing.
Worth fixing before an emissions test, since the monitor cannot complete.
What this code means
The air cleaner inlet control circuit reads below its valid range — a short to ground, or a driver output that has failed low.
What the flap does and why the vehicle has one is explained at P2675.
The location makes one cause commoner here than the code would suggest: this assembly lives on the airbox, and the airbox is opened routinely. Every air filter change means the lid coming off, and the actuator's connector and its short loom sit right where hands and the lid go. A wire pinched under a clip, a connector pulled and not reseated, or a loom trapped as the lid was closed will all produce a code from this family.
A fault from this family dating from around the last service is that, far more often than it is a failed actuator, and the check costs nothing.
On vehicles using a vacuum-operated flap rather than an electric one, the equivalent mistake is a vacuum hose knocked off the same way.
Driveability consequences are minor, as at P2675.
Likely causes
Start here
- Wiring shorted to ground · moderate
- Damaged wiring harness · moderate
- Faulty air cleaner inlet actuator · easy
- Corroded or loose connector · easy
Less common
- Control module driver failure · 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
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