PULSCAR ANALYSIS - P0106 (MAP / BAROMETRIC PRESSURE SENSOR CIRCUIT RANGE/PERFORMANCE) AND SISTER CODES IN NHTSA'S PUBLIC FILES PulsCar analysis of NHTSA public data, October 2026. License: CC BY 4.0 Attribution: "PulsCar analysis of NHTSA public data, October 2026." Published alongside https://www.pulscar.io/blog/p0106-code ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Prepared October 2026. Source data: NHTSA public flat files (complaints received 1 January 2015 to 4 October 2026 - the latest received date in the files; manufacturer communications; recalls since 2010) and documents downloaded one at a time from static.nhtsa.gov. 1. Complaints (326) First search (253): every complaint whose narrative names P0106 by any spelling we searched (a letter O for zero, a space, hyphen or period after the P, the suffix 00, or a bare 106 after "code", "DTC", "error", "CEL", "coded" or "fault"), or a sister code P0105, P0107, P0108 or P0109 in the same spellings, or names the manifold absolute pressure sensor in owners' words (manifold absolute pressure, MAP sensor, T-MAP, baro or barometric pressure sensor, boost pressure sensor, intake manifold pressure sensor) together with a word about a fault, a repair or a symptom. The exact text searches are in codebook.txt. Second search (73): an independent search of the same file for what the first one missed, run after the first batch was sorted; every complaint it proposed that meets the unchanged relevance rule was added. found_by in the complaints file says which search found each complaint. Sorting: the sorting rules (codebook.txt) were written, dated and fingerprinted before any complaint was sorted; an addendum for the second batch was fingerprinted before that batch was sorted. Every complaint was sorted twice, independently, by the same written rules, each time from the rules alone, without sight of the other sorting. One category (N not a pressure-sensor fault on this vehicle; S sensor named or replaced; D sensor or port clogged or contaminated; W wire, plug or connector; A vacuum or air path; F software or a campaign procedure only; O another cause; K checked and cleared; U nothing found or done stated) and four yes/no flags (stall, nostart, recall, returned) were recorded for each. Agreement over all 326: category 268 (82.2%); stall 309 (94.8%); nostart 321 (98.5%); recall 321 (98.5%); returned 308 (94.5%). Settling: every disagreement was read and settled by one of the written rules R1 to R12 (listed in codebook.txt); the rule applied is in the rule_applied column. A consistency check then changed 34 rows on which both sortings had agreed on the category, under the same rules (resolution says "changed in consistency pass"; 29 changed the category, 5 only a flag). Result: 244 relevant, 82 not relevant. Counts are counts of complaints, not cars. A complaint is evidence that an owner wrote to NHTSA; nothing here is a failure rate. 2. Documents (304 index entries, 292 files with a text, 233 distinct documents) First search: NHTSA's index of manufacturer communications, entries whose summary names P0105, P0106, P0107, P0108 or P0109, or names the manifold absolute pressure, barometric or boost-pressure sensor with a word about a fault, a repair or a software update: 233 entries. Second search: 71 more entries found by the independent search (heavy-truck and motorcycle papers left out). 12 entries have no file on NHTSA. Reading: 148 representative documents were read in full; 139 further files (revisions, copies and look-alikes of those) were compared with the representative line by line; 5 files (heavy-truck and motorcycle papers) were set aside. Four papers whose text could not be read as text were read from images of their pages. Every verbatim quotation in the article was checked against the text of the named document or complaint. The three recalls were read from NHTSA's recall filings (Part 573 report, dealer and owner letters, NHTSA acknowledgement). Model years, engines, build dates and coverage terms are as printed in the documents, never taken from NHTSA's index, which expands years. Coverage status "as of September 2026" is the authors' computation from printed terms. duplicate_of marks exact copies (same text as another file): 59 of the 292 files are exact copies, leaving 233 distinct documents. 3. Owner-reported amounts (13 figures in 12 complaints) One written inclusion rule (amounts/RULE below, fixed before the figures were decided): a dollar figure is included when the owner states it as a price, charge, bill or quote for diagnosing, repairing or replacing the MAP, barometric or boost-pressure sensor, its connector or wiring, or its hose and air path, or the part price of that sensor, on that vehicle. Excluded: mileage written as "NNk"; vehicle prices, values, payments, trade-ins, buybacks and refund demands; other systems; totals that mix the sensor with other major work unless the owner attributes the figure to the sensor; restatements and the same text filed twice; other owners' costs. Status comes from the owner's own words (paid, billed, quoted, not stated); group is sensor, wiring, mixed or engine. 4. Limits The complaint file holds the cases where an owner wrote to NHTSA, in the owner's words, with no verification; owners whose trouble ended are mostly not in it. The shares reported (for example how many sensor replacements were followed by a return of the problem) describe the complaints, not all cars. The document set holds what NHTSA's index lists; a maker paper that is not in the index is not in it. Motorcycles, powersports and motorhome chassis are outside the study and are sorted N.