OBD-II trouble code
P0288: Cylinder 10 Injector Circuit Low
Lower-than-expected voltage on the cylinder 10 injector control wire — a short to ground, a shorted coil, or a driver fault. On a V10 this is the last cylinder on the bank, sitting against the firewall under the cowl, which makes water intrusion a leading suspect and makes testing from the computer end the smart first move.
Quick facts
- System
- Powertrain
- Category
- Fuel Injectors
- Severity
- Medium severity
- Drivable
- No — stop driving until repaired
- Repair cost range
- $50 – $1,800
- DIY difficulty
- Intermediate DIY
What does P0288 mean?
The engine control module (ECM) fires each injector by feeding battery voltage to one side of it and switching the ground on the other side for a precise number of milliseconds. Between pulses the control wire should sit near battery voltage, because the injector coil connects it back to the feed. The ECM watches that line, and P0288 sets when the voltage on the cylinder 10 injector control circuit reads low when it should be high.
Confirm your engine has a tenth cylinder before anything else. That means a V10 or a V12: the Ford 6.8L Triton V10, the Dodge and SRT V10s, VW and Audi V10s including the Touareg V10 TDI, the BMW S85, V10 and V12 exotics, and large industrial and marine diesels. On any smaller engine, either the scan tool has misread the code or the manufacturer has reassigned it, and the manufacturer-specific definition always outranks the generic one.
The question that follows is worth asking explicitly, because it changes the physical picture: is this a V10 or a V12? On a V10, cylinder 10 is the LAST cylinder the engine has — the rearmost on its bank, pushed as far back as the block goes, typically sitting against the firewall beneath the cowl. On a V12 there are two more cylinders behind it and the location is merely awkward rather than extreme. Everything below assumes the V10 case, because that is where most real-world P0288 traffic comes from and because it is the harder of the two.
Three faults produce a low reading. The control wire is shorted to ground somewhere in the harness. The injector's own coil winding has shorted internally, collapsing the circuit resistance. Or the ECM's cylinder 10 injector driver — the transistor that does the switching — has failed shorted-on. The first two are far more common than the third.
On the rearmost cylinder of a V10, one cause deserves to be moved up the list: water. The cowl area at the base of the windshield collects everything that lands on the glass and drains it through channels that fill with leaves, pine needles, and dirt over the years. When those drains block, water backs up and finds its way down onto whatever is directly below — which, on a longitudinal V10, is the back of the engine and the rearmost injector connectors. Water sitting in a connector housing corrodes terminals and can bridge circuits directly, which is a textbook route to a short to ground. If you are diagnosing P0288 on a truck or van that has spent years parked outdoors under trees, check the cowl drains and the rear connectors before you check anything else. It is a five-minute inspection that regularly ends the diagnosis, and it also identifies why the fault happened, which is the difference between a repair that lasts and one that repeats.
The second thing to use here is a testing shortcut that works precisely because this cylinder is so awkward to reach. A short to ground is visible from either end of the wire. You do not have to get to the back of the engine to find one: disconnect the ECM connector, disconnect the injector at whatever access you have, and measure resistance from the control pin at the ECM end to ground. Near zero confirms the short and tells you the fault is in the harness — no teardown will help, and you have learned that without removing an intake plenum. Equally, unplugging the injector and restarting: if P0288 returns with the injector disconnected, the injector is not the problem. Both tests take minutes and both can save hours on the hardest injector on the engine to reach.
A hard short means cylinder 10 is either dead or being flooded, which is why this is a do-not-drive condition even though the engine still runs. Unburned fuel dumped into the exhaust is the fastest way to destroy a catalytic converter, and on a ten-cylinder engine that part is expensive. The trap is that one dead cylinder out of ten is far less obvious than one out of four, so the vehicle can feel drivable while damage accumulates. Trust the code rather than how it feels.
Cylinder numbering follows the same rule as the rest of this group. Ford's Triton V10 numbers the passenger bank 1 through 5 and the driver's bank 6 through 10, which puts cylinder 10 at the very rear of the driver's side. Other V10s use the odd/even bank split familiar from American V8s, which puts all the even cylinders including 10 on one bank. Confirm against your engine's diagram rather than the firing order.
Common causes
- Cylinder 10 injector control wire shorted to ground from chafing or a pinched harness
- Water intrusion from blocked cowl drains reaching the rearmost injector connector and bridging circuits
- Corroded, wet, or damaged connector at the cylinder 10 injector
- Internally shorted cylinder 10 injector coil winding
- Harness rubbed through where it passes a bracket, the firewall, or a manifold edge at the very rear of the bank
- Heat damage to insulation where the rear-of-bank harness runs close to the exhaust manifold
- Wiring damaged during recent intake manifold, plenum, or valve cover work
- Failed cylinder 10 injector driver inside the ECM/PCM (uncommon — rule out everything else first)
- Code misread or manufacturer-reassigned on an engine that has no tenth cylinder
Symptoms
- Check engine light on, often flashing if cylinder 10 is dead
- Rough idle and engine shake, though a ten-cylinder engine masks a single dead cylinder well
- Reduced power and hesitation on acceleration, most obvious under load or towing
- Companion misfire codes, commonly P0300 for a random or multiple misfire
- Raw fuel smell or black smoke if the injector is being held open
- Hard starting or extended cranking
- Poor fuel economy
- Symptoms that appear or worsen after heavy rain or a car wash, if water intrusion is the cause
Diagnostic steps
- 1.Confirm your engine actually has a tenth cylinder. If it does not, the code has been misread or reassigned by the manufacturer — look it up against your specific make and model.
- 2.Establish whether the engine is a V10 or a V12, since on a V10 cylinder 10 is the rearmost cylinder on the engine and the access picture is entirely different.
- 3.Record every stored code. A companion misfire code alongside P0288 confirms the cylinder is genuinely affected rather than the code being a stray electrical report.
- 4.Confirm which physical cylinder your engine calls number 10. Ford's Triton V10 numbers the driver's bank 6-7-8-9-10; other V10s split odd and even cylinders across the banks.
- 5.Check the cowl drains and inspect the rearmost injector connectors for water, corrosion, and green deposits before doing anything else. On a rear-of-bank cylinder this is the highest-yield five minutes available.
- 6.Unplug the cylinder 10 injector, clear the code, and start the engine. If P0288 returns with the injector disconnected, the fault is in the wiring or the ECM, not the injector.
- 7.Measure resistance from the control pin to ground at the ECM connector end, with both ends disconnected. Near zero confirms a short to ground in the harness — found without reaching the back of the engine.
- 8.Measure the cylinder 10 injector's coil resistance and compare it against specification and against the other injectors. A reading well below the others indicates shorted windings.
- 9.Inspect the harness along its whole run, with particular attention to the section behind the engine where it passes the firewall, brackets, and the exhaust.
- 10.Inspect the connector for green corrosion, moisture, spread terminals, or a partially seated lock.
- 11.Wiggle-test the harness and connector with the engine running while watching live data, to catch an intermittent short.
- 12.Price the part and confirm availability before committing, since injectors for low-volume ten- and twelve-cylinder engines are not always stocked and are not always cheap.
- 13.If the wiring and the injector both test good and the drive signal is still wrong, suspect the ECM injector driver — but confirm the first two paths thoroughly, because module replacement requires programming.
Repair cost
$50 – $1,800
A wiring or connector repair is often $60-$350, and the rearmost cylinder on a V10 sits at the top of that band purely because of access. If blocked cowl drains caused the problem, clearing them is essentially free and should be done regardless — otherwise the repair repeats. A port fuel injector for a Ford Triton V10 or similar mainstream ten-cylinder runs $60-$200 in parts plus 1-3.5 hours of labor; cylinder 10 is the hardest injector on the engine to reach on most V10 applications, usually requiring the upper intake plenum to come off, which adds gaskets. Injectors for V10 and V12 exotics and direct-injection applications commonly reach $250-$700 each, with availability delays on low-volume engines. A failed ECM injector driver is uncommon and runs $500-$1,800 including programming. Diagnosis alone is typically $100-$200.
Estimate your repair
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Open the Repair Cost Estimator with fuel injector replacement preselected. Adjust labor rate and vehicle category to fit your situation.
DIY vs shop
This is an intermediate DIY job. It usually involves diagnostic steps, specialty parts, and some careful work in tight spaces. If you have the tools and a service manual or trustworthy video for your specific vehicle, it is achievable in a weekend. Otherwise, a competent independent shop will be faster.