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OBD-II Code

P0287

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)

$300–$12,000+

From this code's diagnostic notes. Varies by vehicle, diagnosis, parts, and local labor. This is not a repair quote.

$300 (single coil + plug DIY on a Ford V10) to $12,000+ (V12 injector set + coding on a BMW N74).

P0287 is the cylinder 9 contribution/balance fault — only valid on engines with 9 or more cylinders, so in modern shop work this means a V10 (Ford Triton V10, RAM Viper V10, Audi/Lambo 5.0L/5.2L V10), a V12 (BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Aston Martin), or an inline-12 (almost extinct outside specialty marine/industrial).

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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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 procedureP0287 is the cylinder 9 contribution/balance fault — only valid on engines with 9 or more cylinders, so in modern shop work this means a V10 (Ford Tr…

P0287 is the cylinder 9 contribution/balance fault — only valid on engines with 9 or more cylinders, so in modern shop work this means a V10 (Ford Triton V10, RAM Viper V10, Audi/Lambo 5.0L/5.2L V10), a V12 (BMW, Mercedes, Jaguar, Aston Martin), or an inline-12 (almost extinct outside specialty marine/industrial). The ECM has detected cylinder 9 deviating from per-cylinder fuel trim average by more than +/- 5 mm3/stroke. On a Ford 6.8L Triton V10, cylinder 9 sits on the left (driver) bank, fourth from the front. On a BMW N73/N74 V12 (760i, Rolls-Royce Ghost/Phantom), cylinder 9 is on the right bank, fourth from the front.

Cheapest-first ladder is the same as any contribution code

  1. scan live balance trims, run cylinder cutout (healthy 80-150 RPM drop, weak less than 50), compression test, injector electrical and flow test.
  2. On V10/V12 platforms the labor cost on every step doubles because access is brutal — budget twice the time vs a V8.
  3. Expensive-misdiagnosis caveat: on V12 platforms with two independent ECMs (one per bank, common on BMW N73/N74), a P0287 can be set by an ECM-to-ECM correlation fault rather than a mechanical issue on cyl 9 — verify both ECMs are flashed to the same calibration level and communicating cleanly on the K-CAN/PT-CAN buses before replacing parts.
Vehicle-specific patterns2000-2010 Ford F-250/350/450 and Excursion with the 6.8L Triton V10 (2-valve and 3-valve) is the most common P0287 case in North America — the 3-valv…
  • 2000-2010Ford F-250/350/450 and Excursion with the 6.8L Triton V10 (2-valve and 3-valve) is the most common P0287 case in North America — the 3-valve V10 (2005+) suffers the same stuck-spark-plug, cam-phaser, and coil-boot carbon-tracking issues as the 5.4L 3V V8, and the left-bank cylinders (including cyl 9) are first to fail because of exhaust heat soak from the manifold collector.
  • 2003-2010Dodge RAM SRT-10 with the Viper 8.3L V10 throws P0287 from the well-documented coil-pack failures specific to that platform (10 coils, all in deep wells).
  • 2002-2016BMW N73/N74 V12 (760Li, Rolls-Royce) throws P0287 from index-code mismatches after injector swaps without coding, or from the N74 fuel pump module failure that causes uneven rail pressure between banks.
  • 2011-2015Lamborghini Aventador 6.5L V12 and 2008-2017 Audi R8 5.2L V10 (and Gallardo V10) throw P0287 from carbon buildup and coil-pack failures common to all VAG direct-injection platforms.

Estimated repair$300 (single coil + plug DIY on a Ford V10) to $12,000+ (V12 injector set + coding on a BMW N74).

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