OBD-II trouble code
P0292: Cylinder 11 Injector Circuit High
The engine computer saw higher-than-expected voltage on the cylinder 11 injector control wire, which almost always means an open circuit. On a twelve-cylinder engine the highest-value early check is the shared power feed — and whether your injectors are ordinary solenoids or piezo units, because that decides how you are allowed to test them.
Quick facts
- System
- Powertrain
- Category
- Fuel Injectors
- Severity
- Medium severity
- Drivable
- No — stop driving until repaired
- Repair cost range
- $0 – $2,500
- DIY difficulty
- Intermediate DIY
What does P0292 mean?
The engine control module (ECM) switches the ground side of each injector to fire it. When the ECM commands cylinder 11 on, the control wire should be pulled down toward ground; when it releases, the line returns to near battery voltage. P0292 sets when that line stays high when it should have been pulled low, or reads higher than the ECM's expected range.
In practice, a circuit-HIGH code usually means an OPEN. Something in the path is no longer completing the circuit, so the ECM's driver has nothing to pull down. That is worth internalising because it points diagnosis somewhere specific: opens do not usually happen in the middle of a wire. Copper is very reliable along its length. Circuits come apart at the joints — terminals, splices, ground points, and connector interfaces — because those are where corrosion, vibration, heat cycling and mechanical strain concentrate. Applied to this code, a twelve-cylinder injector harness is the longest and most branched in any passenger vehicle, with more connectors on it than a V8's, and more joints means more candidates. Inspect and wiggle-test connections before condemning any length of wire.
Check the power feed early, and check it before you buy anything. Injectors are supplied battery voltage in groups — typically per bank on a V12, sometimes in smaller banks of three or four — through a fuse and a relay or a driver in the module. If that feed is lost, every injector downstream of it reports a circuit-high fault at once because none of them can complete a circuit. Several high codes together is a single lost feed, not several failed injectors, and reading it the other way is the classic way to spend a bank's worth of injector money on a blown fuse.
There is a second question specific to twelve-cylinder engines that has to be answered before you put a meter anywhere. Not all injectors are solenoids. Direct-injection V12s — the BMW N74 among them — use piezoelectric injectors, which are driven by high-voltage pulses through a completely different circuit and do not have a coil winding to measure. An ohmmeter across a piezo injector tells you essentially nothing about its health, and the resistance figures published for solenoid injectors do not apply. Worse, the drive circuits on some direct-injection systems carry voltages high enough to be genuinely hazardous and can be damaged by careless probing. Find out which type your engine uses first. If it is piezo, the correct approach is scan-tool data and the manufacturer's own test procedure, not a multimeter across the terminals.
Cylinder 11 sits on the second bank of a V12, and on the engines that run each bank on its own control module, so does its driver. That changes which module you back-probe and which one you would ultimately be condemning. It also gives you a free reference: the equivalent injector on the opposite bank is the same part, the same age and the same design, running on the same engine. Compare against it rather than against a generic chart.
Until the fault is found, treat the vehicle as not driveable. An open injector circuit means the cylinder is not firing, and a dead cylinder pumps unburned air and fuel into the exhaust where it destroys catalytic converters. A V12 has two.
Common causes
- Open or broken cylinder 11 injector control wire
- Loose, backed-out, or corroded terminal at the injector connector
- Lost battery-voltage feed to the injector group — blown fuse, failed relay, or corroded splice (suspect this first if several injector-high codes are stored together)
- Open injector coil winding on solenoid-type injectors
- Broken connector lock allowing the plug to work loose from vibration
- Chafed harness that has finally worn through rather than merely shorted
- Failed cylinder 11 injector driver in the module that controls that bank (uncommon)
- Damage from recent service — routine work on a V12 requires removing most of the top of the engine, and pinched or unseated connectors are a common aftermath
Symptoms
- Check engine light on, often flashing while cylinder 11 is dead
- Misfire on cylinder 11, with companion misfire codes such as P0300
- Rough idle and vibration, though a V12 masks a single dead cylinder unusually well
- Noticeable loss of power under load and a top end that no longer pulls cleanly
- Unburned fuel smell from the exhaust
- Poor fuel economy
- Multiple injector circuit-high codes at once if a shared feed has been lost
Diagnostic steps
- 1.Confirm your engine has an eleventh cylinder — only twelve-cylinder engines do. If it does not, re-read with a second scan tool, then check the code against your manufacturer's own definitions.
- 2.Read every stored code first. Several injector circuit-high codes together point at a shared power feed, not at several failed injectors — check the injector fuse and relay before anything else.
- 3.Establish whether your injectors are solenoid or piezoelectric. Direct-injection V12s use piezo units that cannot be meaningfully tested with an ohmmeter and whose drive circuits can be hazardous to probe — on those, use the manufacturer's procedure and scan-tool data instead.
- 4.Determine whether your V12 runs one control module or two. Cylinder 11 is on the second bank, and on split-module engines it is driven by the second module.
- 5.Confirm which physical cylinder your engine calls number 11 from the manufacturer's numbering diagram.
- 6.Check for battery voltage at the injector feed pin with the key on. No voltage means the fault is upstream of the injector entirely.
- 7.On solenoid injectors, measure coil resistance and compare against the injector in the mirror position on the opposite bank — same part, same age, same engine, and a far better reference than a generic chart.
- 8.Back-probe the control wire while the engine cranks or runs and look for the drive pulse. No pulse with good feed and a good injector points at the driver in the bank module.
- 9.Do a continuity check on the control wire from the injector connector back to the module connector, then wiggle-test it while watching the meter to catch an intermittent open.
- 10.Inspect the connector terminals closely for spread, backed-out, or green-corroded pins, and confirm the connector lock is fully seated.
- 11.Confirm the fault is gone by clearing codes and driving a full drive cycle, since an intermittent open can pass a static test and still return.
Repair cost
$0 – $2,500
A backed-out terminal reseated by hand or a blown injector fuse costs nothing but the time to find it, which is why the low end here is zero. A connector or wiring repair usually runs $80-$400 on a twelve-cylinder engine, mostly access rather than difficulty. A V12 injector is a low-volume part at $150-$700 each, direct-injection piezo units cost more again, and labor to reach a rear-of-bank injector runs 1.5-5 hours depending on the platform. A failed driver or bank control module runs $700-$2,500 including programming. Diagnosis is typically $120-$250 because the injector type and module architecture both have to be established before testing begins.
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.