Yesterday I noticed that my outside ambient air temp is wrong in my car. It consistently climbs while I drive. It was about 70 degrees outside and after about 30 minutes of driving, it was up to 111 degrees.

I called the dealership and they told me I'm out of warranty so I decided to jump online and try to find a solution.

Could this just be a bad sensor? If so, does anyone know the technical name or part number of the part so that I can look it up and order one?

Also... the location of the sensor would be appreciated. I haven't really looked for it yet. I've seen other vehicles where it was somewhere around the front bumper.

Thanks ahead of time!

 

I've noticed this with mine as well. During short trips with a lot of stops at red lights, the ambient temp goes way up. I believe the sensor must be somewhere under the hood and the hot under hood engine temperatures are affecting the ambient temperature. As soon as you drive it does go down but the ambient temp should only be believable when you first get in to the car.

 

Actually with mine it goes up as I drive. Most of my work commute is on the highway, so I'm always driving anywhere between 55 and 70 depending on what section I'm on. There are very few stops. I live out in the country so I don't really have to deal with traffic.

When I get in my car the temp looks pretty accurate, but it then climbs up and claims that it's 111 degrees out for the rest of the trip.

Only started a couple days ago. Previously, it was alway pretty accurate. I had only noticed it being inaccurate if I had my car parked in the sun on a hot summer day or something, but then it always fixed itself when I started driving.

 

From memory the ambient air temp sensor is mounted in front of the radiators( behind the bumper).

 

it shouldn't be that high with highway driving. Perhaps your cooling fans aren't working properly or you need a new thermostat, flush and fill?
You should be getting plenty of air flow with highway driving. Have a visual inspection in front of rad to see if some blockage.
Mine only got high with hot city driving.

 

Can someone be more specific about the exact location? I have a 2008 and I have never seen this issue before. Mine sits on 100F and will not change.