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U0072

Vehicle Communication Bus A (-) Bus Off

The CAN controller for bus A has gone bus-off on the minus side. Common after a CAN-L short or a faulty transceiver pulling the bus low.

  • Check engine light: Yes
  • Emissions related: No
  • Repair difficulty: hard

Symptoms

  • Multiple warning lights may illuminate
  • Affected modules may go into limp mode or shut down
  • Specific functions inoperative depending on module
  • Diagnostic tools may show communication faults

Common causes

Ordered by how often each turns out to be the cause.

  • Persistent short on CAN-L wireCommon
  • Gateway module routing CAN messages incorrectlyLess likely
  • CAN terminating resistor (120 Ω) drifted out of specLess likely

Parts involved

  • CAN Transceiver
  • CAN Low Wire

U0072 is a generic OBD-II code defined by SAE J2012. Exact wording and diagnostic procedure vary by manufacturer and model. Code definitions are drawn from the public-domain OBDex dataset; the workshop notes are our own.