Hey All- I've been fighting off what would seem to be random P030x misfire codes. They're usually accompanied by a P0327. I've swapped coils to confirm they're at fault, then replaced the individual ones and cleared codes and moved on with my life, thinking I should replace all 8 as a set at some point.

But yesterday the truck was running sluggish again, which is usually how this cycle starts. It threw the CEL on an uphill climb where it was downshifting frequently (because sluggish). GAP indicates (among other unrelated codes) ONLY P0327 this time. SO I did a slightly deeper dive on it.Engine Petrol

• P0327-00 (E8) Knock sensor 1 - circuit low input (bank 1)
  - Confirmed
  - Test Failed Since Last Clear
  - Test Not Completed This Monitoring Cycle
  - MIL Requested

Elsewhere, the description is: As for sensor operation, depending on severity of the measured knock, the sensor will produce spikes from 0 – 4.5 volts. Even on a normally operating engine, there will be some activity from the knock sensor and the ECM/PCM knows this. When the engine is running and the knock sensor doesn’t produce any kind of signal at all, code P0327 is set.

Ordinarily I cringe when ppl start replacing sensors because they're throwing a code because that's what they're supposed to do--indicate a problem that they're sensing. But this code actually seems to indicate the knock sensor itself is bad (and can cause a conservative map which would explain the sluggishness). Did a search and don't see a lot of posts on knock sensors. Easy enough to source, but does anyone have any experience with these? More curious than anything, I'll get a new one in and figure it out but was hoping someone had been down this path. Early stages of research but biggest question is: will I need to remove the intake?

 

I tend to agree with you that a knock sensor may be at fault. There are two sensor but I believe they come as a set with one connector on the AJV8. I would inspect wiring and make sure the connector is secure. I would also test them at the harness too. I never have tested one, but I am sure there is some method.

I am not sure if you can remove them without pulling the intake. Then are mounted flat to the block in the valley with two longer bolts that will have to come straight up. I suppose you could remove the coolant t-stat housing assembly/crossover and take a look to see if you could get tools down under the intake. You would know right away. And to do the intake removing the coolant assembly makes things easier anyway. But I would not start such a project without everything you might need in hand, such as intake gaskets. Also you need to be very wary on the intake gaskets you buy as they are VIN specific. 2004/2005 and some 2006 seems to have one style versus later years. Link below where I ran into this myself. You will also want other assorted gaskets like the large green intake manifold to throttle body plenum, if you take it apart there. And yes there are two sets of intake gaskets, you have the uppers which are the rubber o-rings looking things and then you have flat metal ones for lowers on each side. Overall it should be a pretty easy project but one that will take time if you decide to clean the intake, clean the injectors and put new o-rings on em, etc. One of those "as long as you are in there" projects......

https://landroverforums.com/forum/lr...fusion-107837/

 

Great news! According to the attached screenshot from the workshop manual (which I almost certainly got from you, TYVM), I only have to remove the intake manifold gaskets to get to the sensors. Hmm....

Snow coming, no space in the garage, I think I'm going to need to live with this a bit. It's been fine, just the occasional misfire/code. But it may give me an excuse to do the injectors which I've been wanting to do for some time.

 

Confirmed the wiring to the knock sensor is intact at the top of the intake and the wires looked good as far as I could track them going under the intake. There were some critters under the hood at some point, but they seemed to enjoy the insulation and I haven't detected any related wiring issues...so far.

The only GAP parameters I've found that seem related to the knock sensors are a retard reading for each cylinder, 1-8. Since there's only 2 knock sensors, this seems to be a calculation that's somehow determined and applied specifically to the cylinder. The reading is in degrees. Apparently knock sensors communicate millivolts to the ECM, but I can't find that in the list.

I hooned it while watching the 8 cylinders for the knock sensor retard and was able to get a reading on all of them at one point or another. They all varied but stay at 0 when not under load. When thrashing it a bit, a weird things happened: they all ended up in sync, reading identically. I disconnected and killed the app and relaunched and it was the same. I checked for faults and it had thrown P0327 again according to the list (tho the CEL hadn't come on), so it seems that was some sort of safety/fallback. The synced numbers seemed a lot higher than they had been before as well, which I can see making sense. Clearing the fault made the behavior for the retard revert back to what it was originally--all the cylinders different, lower, and generally 0 when not under load. I'd love to get the specific reading for the knock sensor itself if anyone happens to know where to find it. Or the PID and I can watch it via Torque app.

Not necessarily expecting input here but I'm wide open to it. Just sort of documenting the experience so I can check back when the weather clears and I can do something about it.

edit: confirmed "knock sensor total retard 1-8" (super offensive btw) is the only KS parameter available with the GAP. Bummer.