OBD-II Code
P0060
Severity
Not yet reviewed
Nobody on our side has assessed this code yet, so we are not going to guess at how serious it is.
Can you drive it
We cannot say
Treat it as unknown until a shop reads it with live data. If the check-engine light is FLASHING, stop driving as soon as it is safe to — that means an active misfire, whatever the code.
Indicative cost (USD)
$180–$620
From this code's diagnostic notes. Varies by vehicle, diagnosis, parts, and local labor. This is not a repair quote.
P0060 means the heater circuit RESISTANCE on Bank 2 Sensor 2 is out of the expected range — the ECM performs a periodic resistance check (typically by measuring current draw at known voltage and computing R = V/I) and flags the code when the calculated heater resistance falls outside roughly 2-15 ohms at the temperature-compensated reference.
How a shop works this
Work from evidence to part, not the other way round. A code names a circuit or a symptom; it does not name the part that failed.
Note every code that is set, not just this one.
Codes that appear together usually narrow the cause faster than any one of them read alone.
Read the freeze frame — the conditions the fault was recorded under.
Cold or warm, idle or load, road speed and engine speed. A fault that only appears cold is a different fault from one that only appears under load, even with the same code on the scanner.
Confirm the fault is current rather than history.
Clear the code and see whether it returns under those same conditions. A code that does not come back may have been logged during a repair, a flat battery, or a bad connection that has since been disturbed.
Then follow the diagnostic notes further down this page, in the order they are written.
They are written in the order a shop works this code, cheapest checks first. Where they name a component, inspect its wiring and connector before replacing it.
If the code comes back after a repair, the underlying fault is still there. That is the point to bring in a scanner with live data and freeze-frame, or a shop that has one.
Common symptoms
- Check engine light
Read the full diagnostic procedureP0060 means the heater circuit RESISTANCE on Bank 2 Sensor 2 is out of the expected range — the ECM performs a periodic resistance check (typically b…
P0060 means the heater circuit RESISTANCE on Bank 2 Sensor 2 is out of the expected range — the ECM performs a periodic resistance check (typically by measuring current draw at known voltage and computing R = V/I) and flags the code when the calculated heater resistance falls outside roughly 2-15 ohms at the temperature-compensated reference. This is different from P0058's voltage-low fault — P0060 is specifically a resistance-plausibility fault, which means the heater is still drawing SOME current, just not the right amount.
Cheapest-first ladder
- unplug the Bank 2 Sensor 2 connector and measure heater resistance across the two heater pins with a DMM at known ambient temperature — at 70F a healthy heater reads 5-9 ohms (with 2-15 ohms being the broad acceptable range); an aged heater that's heading toward open will read 15-50 ohms before going fully OL, and that drift is what sets P0060.
- Verify the measurement at the connector AND at the sensor terminals — if resistance is good at the sensor but high at the connector, the issue is corrosion in the pins, not the element.
- Verify B+ on the supply pin (12.5-14.0V) and confirm the ground reference is under 0.1V drop.
- The expensive misdiagnosis on P0060: techs replace the sensor twice because the first replacement was an aftermarket unit with looser resistance tolerance that drifted out of spec again within months — use OEM or Denso/NTK/Bosch-OE sensors for this code specifically, since the ECM is measuring resistance to ~5% tolerance.
Vehicle-specific patterns2005-2011 Mercedes-Benz M272 V6 and M273 V8 are the textbook P0060 vehicles — the OE Bosch wide-band sensors have a known thermal-cycle fatigue mode…
- 2005-2011Mercedes-Benz M272 V6 and M273 V8 are the textbook P0060 vehicles — the OE Bosch wide-band sensors have a known thermal-cycle fatigue mode where heater resistance drifts upward at 80-120k miles, and Mercedes ECMs use tight resistance windows that flag the drift as a hard fault.
- 2003-2010BMW N62 V8 (550i, 650i, 750i, X5 4.8) sees P0060 from the same Bosch heater drift on the four-O2-sensor exhaust system — Bank 2 specifically because the rear sensor sits closer to the cat heat soak.
- 2008-2013Range Rover/Range Rover Sport with the Jaguar AJ-V8 5.0L sees P0060 from underbody corrosion at the Bank 2 rear sensor connector pins.
- 2005-2010VW/Audi 4.2L FSI V8 (S4, RS4, A6, Q7) sees P0060 from chronic heater drift on the rear B2S2 location.
Estimated repair$180 to $620.
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