P007C–P00A2 Charge Air Cooler Temperature Sensor Circuit Low Bank 1
The voltage on this circuit is sitting near zero. Typically a short to earth, or a sensor that has failed to its low end.
Can you drive it? The engine light will stay on and the car may run in a reduced-power mode. Read the freeze-frame data to see the conditions the fault was logged under.
Which code is which
Same fault, different cylinder or bank — diagnosed the same way. Several set together usually means one shared cause.
| Code | Definition | Severity |
|---|---|---|
P007C | Charge Air Cooler Temperature Sensor Circuit Low Bank 1 | Investigate soon |
P00A2 | Charge Air Cooler Temperature Sensor Circuit Low Bank 2 | Investigate soon |
The definition
P007C: Charge Air Cooler Temperature Sensor Circuit Low Bank 1.
P007C is a powertrain code (the engine or gearbox), defined by the SAE standard - it means the same thing on any make of car, and any generic OBD-II reader will decode it.
What to check first
Cheapest and fastest checks first:
- Unplug the sensor. If the reading jumps to full scale, the wiring is fine and the sensor has failed low.
- Check the sensor's 5V supply and its earth before condemning the sensor itself.
What actually causes this on a VAG
"Circuit low" means the voltage the ECU sees on this sensor's signal wire has fallen below anything a real temperature could produce. These sensors work by changing resistance with heat, so a collapsed signal voltage normally translates into an impossibly hot charge air reading - which is why the ECU rejects it and falls back to a safe substitute figure. You may notice reduced power or boost while it's doing that. The usual cause is the signal wire finding an earth somewhere, or the sensor shorting internally.
Most likely causes, in order
- Signal wire shorted to earth. Somewhere the wire is touching metal - chafed on a bracket, trapped against the manifold, or damaged where the loom flexes with the engine. There's a free test that splits the job in half. With the ignition on and the engine off, unplug the sensor and watch the live charge air temperature: with nothing connected it should swing to the extreme cold end of the scale. If it stays at the hot extreme, or the same low-voltage fault comes straight back with the sensor disconnected, the problem is in the wiring and no sensor will fix it.
- The sensor has failed short internally. This is the flip side of the test above. If unplugging the sensor sends the reading to the cold extreme - showing the wiring and the ECU are behaving as they should - and plugging it back in immediately drags it to the hot extreme again, the sensor is the faulty part.
- Coolant or water in the connector. Moisture bridging two pins does exactly the same thing electrically as a short in the loom. Look for damp, crusty deposits or a coolant trail in and around the plug, and look above it for a weeping hose, housing or seal - if you dry the connector out without finding the leak, it will come back.
Worth knowing: Do the unplug test before you buy anything. It costs nothing, takes a couple of minutes, and it tells you definitively whether you're buying a sensor or chasing a wire. One thing to expect: on engines where this is a combined pressure and temperature sensor, unplugging it will also store a charge pressure fault. That's normal - clear it once you've plugged the sensor back in.
Reading the code is the easy part
A code names the circuit that complained. What tells you why is watching the sensor behind it while the engine runs — and that is where a code reader stops and a diagnostic tool starts.
VAGPULSE reads every module in a VW, Audi, Skoda or SEAT — not just the engine — shows the live measuring blocks behind this fault, gives you the freeze-frame conditions it was logged under, and clears it once you have fixed it. It also does what a generic OBD reader cannot on a VAG: service resets, coding, adaptations, and Stage 1–3 flashing with your original file saved first.
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Common questions
What does P007C mean?
P007C means Charge Air Cooler Temperature Sensor Circuit Low Bank 1. The voltage on this circuit is sitting near zero. Typically a short to earth, or a sensor that has failed to its low end.
Can I drive with P007C?
The engine light will stay on and the car may run in a reduced-power mode. Read the freeze-frame data to see the conditions the fault was logged under.