wibblywobbly

Anyone have any problems with it giving erroneous readings? Mine started acting strange today.

- Drove it for an hour put it in the garage for about 2 hours and when I came out the display said it was 84 degrees out. (it was in the low 50's) After about 5 minutes of driving it went back down (slowly) to roughly the correct temp.

- Later on I drove it after it had been sitting for 5-6 hours outside. (in the dark) Initially it said it was 66 out and after 5 minutes or so it went down in to the correct range (40's).

Until this point the temperature had always been correct, whether or not the car had been sitting for any length of time inside or outside.

Where is the sensor (dumb question) is there some way to reset it?

Garage1217

iTrader: (5)

Mine has acted that way since day one. 84F seems to be the magic number everytime I start her. Then within 5 minutes or so the temp is always correct. I noticed when I was up north in the state everymorning it was around 30F it always started at 54F and then went down within a few minutes.

TCAV8R

You do realize that heat is greater in the engine bay right? The heat does not dissipate as quickly as the air in other areas of the vehicle. So the temperature guage must be near the engine bay.

toby3002

duing the summer in socal ive seen it say 130 degrees or so...so its been wacky from day 1

Bobby_Lee

that's an interesting question. i'd like to know where the sensor is as well...

sciontc_mich

the temp sensor is between the front bumper and the radiator.. open the hood, look down between the two and you'll see it there, to the left of the horn..

and the temp gauge ends up reading the ambient temp of the engine.. once you're driving it resets itself to the correct temp, takes a couple miles of driving..

HughDTX

You probably never noticed the incorrect readings then. My car usually starts out 20-40 degrees above actual, but once I get going it becomes very accurate within 2 or 3 minutes.

wibblywobbly

Is behind the bumper/in front of the radiator a common place for the temp sensors?

I use to drive a Maxima and the temp sensor never did this. I think it was on the outside of the car at the base of the windshield and direct sunlight use to mess it up sometimes. For some reason I assumed this was where the sensor was on the tC.

Garage1217

iTrader: (5)

On mine, the car can sit for days, start her up and she says 84F when it is say.. 50 out... I doubt the engine holds heat that long! Also I can sit in place and the temp will go to normal.

fearturtle44

I think this is typical of all cars. My wife's Baja takes a few minutes for the o/s temp to correct itself. No biggie....

Kevin

boostedscion

go to the dealer to check it out

HughDTX

Guys... seriously... it's pefectly normal and the engineers knew it would do this. WHY do you think they don't let you go to temp mode without the car or ACC mode on? Because they don't want a bunch of people chilling out in their off cars with temp mode on going "WTF... it's not that warm out".

tc_wannabe

Mumm... I guess I am rare then, mine read correctly everytime

BlkSandPrlTurbotC

at least you have your LCD Display.....

mine is cracked and not functional ...

mandos

There have been several threads on this topic.

It's TOTALLY normal...completely and totally normal.

ycart1201

^^^ ok, cause mine takes a couple minutes to calibrate too.

Nathan
ycart1201

EWXB

Mine no longer shows the temp at all.
I've changed the sensor for a brand new one...yet the reading on the dashboard remains just spaces with a "F" at the end. Is there a fuse that is associated with this function ?
2009 XB Series 6 red .