Monitor Description

The knock sensor, located on the cylinder block, detects spark knock. When a spark knock occurs, the piezoelectric element of the sensor vibrates. When the ECM detects a voltage in this frequency range, it retards the ignition timing to suppress the spark knock.

The ECM also senses background engine noise with the knock sensor and uses this noise to check for faults in the sensor. If the knock sensor signal level is too low for more than 10 seconds, or if the knock sensor output voltage is outside the normal range, the ECM interprets this as a fault in the knock sensor and sets a DTC.