P0097–P0112 Intake Air Temperature Sensor 2 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 |
|---|---|---|
P0097 | Intake Air Temperature Sensor 2 Circuit Low Bank 1 | Investigate soon |
P00A7 | Intake Air Temperature Sensor 2 Circuit Low Bank 2 | Investigate soon |
P00AC | Intake Air Temperature Sensor 1 Circuit Low Bank 2 | Investigate soon |
P0112 | Intake Air Temperature Sensor 1 Circuit Low Bank 1 | Investigate soon |
The definition
P0097: Intake Air Temperature Sensor 2 Circuit Low Bank 1.
P0097 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
The charge air temperature sensor on bank one - normally built into the charge pressure sensor after the intercooler - has a signal voltage sitting at the bottom of its range. These sensors work by falling in resistance as they get hotter, so a bottomed-out signal is read by the control unit as an implausibly hot charge. It will fall back on a substitute value, which usually means winding back boost and ignition timing to be safe, so the car can feel noticeably flat. A low signal is nearly always a wiring problem or an internally failed sensor rather than anything actually wrong with the air going into your engine.
Most likely causes, in order
- Signal wire shorted to earth. A chafed wire touching the engine, a bracket or a heat shield pulls the signal straight to the bottom. Trace the wiring from the sensor back through the loom, flexing it by hand and looking for worn insulation, especially anywhere the harness crosses a sharp edge or has been disturbed by previous work.
- Moisture or dirt in the connector. Water or contamination bridging the terminals inside the plug produces exactly the same result as a short in the loom. Unclip the connector, look inside for damp, green or oily pins, dry and clean it thoroughly and refit it properly. This is the cheapest possible fix and worth doing before anything else.
- The sensor has failed internally. There is a clean test that separates the sensor from its wiring. With the ignition on, unplug the sensor and clear the code. If the fault now reports as an open or high circuit instead of low, the wiring back to the control unit is intact and the sensor itself is at fault. If it still reports low with nothing plugged in, the short is in the harness and a new sensor would have been wasted money.
Worth knowing: Do the unplug test before buying anything. A low-circuit code that persists with the sensor disconnected proves the fault is in the wiring, and that one quick check is the difference between repairing a chafed wire and fitting a combined pressure and temperature sensor that was never broken.
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 P0097 mean?
P0097 means Intake Air Temperature Sensor 2 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 P0097?
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.