OBD-II Code
P0195
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.
P0195 is a generic-circuit fault on the engine oil temperature (EOT) sensor — the ECU is seeing a signal it can't reconcile, typically because the sensor is open, shorted, or reporting a value that doesn't track expected behavior during warm-up.
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 procedureP0195 is a generic-circuit fault on the engine oil temperature (EOT) sensor — the ECU is seeing a signal it can't reconcile, typically because the se…
P0195 is a generic-circuit fault on the engine oil temperature (EOT) sensor — the ECU is seeing a signal it can't reconcile, typically because the sensor is open, shorted, or reporting a value that doesn't track expected behavior during warm-up. Operating range for a healthy EOT sensor is roughly 180-250°F under normal load with oil-cooled engines pushing closer to 270°F under sustained towing or track use.
Cheapest first
- scan live data and watch the EOT PID alongside engine coolant temperature (ECT) during a cold start — they should start within 10°F of each other at ambient, and EOT should lag ECT by 5-15 minutes as the oil takes longer to warm than the coolant.
- A sensor reading that stays pegged at -40°F or jumps to 300°F instantly is reporting an open or short.
- Pull the sensor connector and ohm the sensor across its two pins; most thermistor-style EOT sensors read 2,000-3,000 ohms at room temperature and drop to 100-300 ohms at full operating temp.
- Verify 5V reference and ground at the connector with a DMM before condemning the sensor.
- The expensive misdiagnosis: replacing the EOT sensor when the actual fault was a failing oil-cooler thermostat or a clogged oil cooler that's preventing the oil from reaching expected temperature — the sensor was correctly reporting cold oil and the ECU blamed the sensor for a mechanical problem upstream.
Vehicle-specific patterns2011-2019 Ford 6.7L Power Stroke routinely throws P0195 from EOT sensor failure or harness corrosion at the connector — the sensor lives near the oil…
- 2011-2019Ford 6.7L Power Stroke routinely throws P0195 from EOT sensor failure or harness corrosion at the connector — the sensor lives near the oil filter housing and sees a lot of underhood heat and oil-mist contamination.
- 2007-2014BMW N54 / N55 / S55 inline-6 sets P0195 from EOT sensor failure as part of the oil-filter-housing-gasket failure pattern; when the OFHG leaks, oil saturates the sensor connector and corrodes the pins.
- 2014-2019GM Duramax 6.6L LML / L5P commonly throws P0195 from EOT sensor circuit issues, often resolved with a connector pigtail replacement rather than a new sensor.
- 2008-2017VW / Audi 2.0T TSI / TDI sees P0195 from oil-temp sensor failure integrated into the oil filter housing or oil-cooler stack, which means the whole housing assembly is often quoted instead of the sensor alone.
Estimated repair$80 to $450.
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