OBD-II Code
P0167
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)
$80–$450
From this code's diagnostic notes. Varies by vehicle, diagnosis, parts, and local labor. This is not a repair quote.
P0167 means the bank 2 sensor 3 O2 heater circuit is faulty — the ECM monitors the heater current draw and flags this code when it's outside the expected 0.5-2A operating window (either zero current = open circuit, or excessive current = short circuit).
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 procedureP0167 means the bank 2 sensor 3 O2 heater circuit is faulty — the ECM monitors the heater current draw and flags this code when it's outside the expe…
P0167 means the bank 2 sensor 3 O2 heater circuit is faulty — the ECM monitors the heater current draw and flags this code when it's outside the expected 0.5-2A operating window (either zero current = open circuit, or excessive current = short circuit). The heater is what brings the sensor element up to its 600F+ light-off temperature in the first 30-60 seconds after cold start so the ECM can enter closed-loop fuel control quickly; without the heater, the sensor takes 5-10 minutes to warm up from exhaust heat alone and the engine runs in open-loop (fixed rich fuel map) the whole time, burning extra fuel and dumping unburned HC into the cat.
Cheapest-first ladder
- unplug the sensor and ohm the heater pins (typically the two outer pins on a 4-wire sensor) with a DMM — a healthy heater reads 6-15 ohms cold; an open heater reads infinite (OL); a shorted heater reads near 0 ohms.
- If the heater ohms correctly, the fault is upstream: check the heater B+ feed for 12V with key on (a blown heater fuse takes out multiple sensors at once on most platforms — verify which fuse is shared), and confirm the ECM's heater-driver low-side ground pulses to ground when commanded.
- A 5-minute heater-element ohm check resolves 70%+ of P0167 calls before any parts get ordered.
- Expensive-misdiagnosis caveat: corroded connector pins on the heater side increase resistance just enough to push current below the 0.5A threshold without actually breaking the circuit — clean and dielectric-grease the connector before condemning the sensor.
Vehicle-specific patterns2004-2010 Ford F-150/Expedition 5.4L 3V throws P0167 from a shared O2 heater fuse blowing when ANY of the four sensors shorts internally — verify whi…
- 2004-2010Ford F-150/Expedition 5.4L 3V throws P0167 from a shared O2 heater fuse blowing when ANY of the four sensors shorts internally — verify which fuse number covers B2S3 before ordering parts.
- 2007-2014Toyota Tundra/Sequoia 5.7L 3UR-FE throws P0167 from internal heater element failure around 100-130k miles; the rest of the sensor is fine but the heater opens.
- 2008-2014GM Tahoe/Suburban/Yukon 5.3L/6.2L throws P0167 from connector pin-fretting at the rear-bank post-cat sensor where road salt and thermal cycling fatigue the pin contact.
- 2010-2016Audi Q7 4.2L V8 / Touareg 4.2L V8 throws P0167 from coolant intrusion via the valley-pan leak onto the post-cat sensor harness — same root cause as the Range Rover 5.0L.
Estimated repair$80 to $450.
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