Outside temp sensor and display

[vincentw56]

So, I was noticing that the outside temperature sensor can be off. But then I realized, it is pretty accurate. It measures the "feels like" temperature. My phone and watch both have the actual temperature and the "feels like" temperature on it. And this sensor is closer to the feels like temperature. Since that is what we feel, that makes it really accurate.

 

[BowDown]

IDK, if I park with the driver side facing the sun it will display a much hotter temp than my phone yet when I start driving it cools down closer to what my phone says. Ex. I left a customer site last week and it read 117°, three miles later it was down to 102° then 99°

 

[vincentw56]

IDK, if I park with the driver side facing the sun it will display a much hotter temp than my phone yet when I start driving it cools down closer to what my phone says. Ex. I left a customer site last week and it read 117°, three miles later it was down to 102° then 99°

Yeah, that's with all these sensors on every car I've owned. But, mine is always the feels like on my phone after driving for a little bit.

 

[GKIII]

It has to do with where the thermistor is located, it will just sit there and heat soak when parked (concrete and blacktop on a sunny day will also make this worse) but will cool down closer to actual temperatures when the vehicle is moving.

 

[yellowboy]

This is the most innaccurate sensor I have ever had in a vehicle. Compare what it says to your phone or the U connect weather display -not even close . - They should have just glued an old mercury thermometer to the windshield. They would have saved money.

 

[GKIII]

This is the most innaccurate sensor I have ever had in a vehicle. Compare what it says to your phone or the U connect weather display -not even close . - They should have just glued an old mercury thermometer to the windshield. They would have saved money.

If you held a mercury thermometer a few feet off a heat-soaked road you would still not match whatever your apps or Uconnect say.

 

[Richard320]

I'm not sure about Ram, but Toyotas calculate that value based on a temperature sensor, solar load, and speed. Really. Buried deep somewhere in some literature we even found where they say it can take up to 4 minutes after startup to read accurately. It was a real common warranty complaint when I was wrenching there. There was nothing we could do but print out the info and give it to the customer. We could get in with the scanner and see what the actual probe read and it was never what was displayed on the dash. Until you drove it a while. It seems to hold true in the Ram. The other morning I got in and it said it was 104. About 8 houses down the block, it was 89. Then it fell quickly through the 80s until it stopped dropping at 83, which felt about right.

 

[GKIII]

I'm not sure about Ram, but Toyotas calculate that value based on a temperature sensor, solar load, and speed. Really. Buried deep somewhere in some literature we even found where they say it can take up to 4 minutes after startup to read accurately. It was a real common warranty complaint when I was wrenching there. There was nothing we could do but print out the info and give it to the customer. We could get in with the scanner and see what the actual probe read and it was never what was displayed on the dash. Until you drove it a while. It seems to hold true in the Ram. The other morning I got in and it said it was 104. About 8 houses down the block, it was 89. Then it fell quickly through the 80s until it stopped dropping at 83, which felt about right.

Not 100% about the 5th gen but the 4th gens just use a thermistor in the driver's side mirror. Concrete/asphalt get ****ing hot during the day, so it's going to read much higher than what the weather station is saying so long as it's just sitting there.

 

[User_3336]

Not 100% about the 5th gen but the 4th gens just use a thermistor in the driver's side mirror. Concrete/asphalt get ****ing hot during the day, so it's going to read much higher than what the weather station is saying so long as it's just sitting there.

Exactly. Once you get moving, it lowers, and after a few miles is pretty close to the actual outside temp.