Abstract This paper investigates the problem of event-triggered fault detection filter design for nonlinear networked control systems with both sensor faults and process faults. First, Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy model is utilized to represent the nonlinear systems with faults and disturbances. Second, a discrete event-triggered communication scheme is proposed to reduce the utilization of limited network bandwidth between filter and original system. At the same time, considering network-induced delays and event-triggered scheme, a novel T–S fuzzy fault detection filter is constructed to generate a residual signal, which has nonsynchronous premise variables with the original T–S fuzzy system. Then, the fuzzy Lyapunov functional based approach and the reciprocally convex approach are developed such that the obtained sufficient conditions ensure that the fuzzy fault detection system is asymptotically stable with H ∞ performance and is less conservative. All the conditions are given in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), which can be solved by LMI tools in MATLAB environment. Finally, a numerical example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]