Now try all means to hack down my aka 'heat soak' problem.

Today I noticed that, my outside temperature reading is affected by the engine temperature.

For example, normal outside temperature today is 51F, after I stopped by Harbor freight and hanging ard, say 30mins. When I go out and try to start the car and go home. I could not start, as expected. Suddenly, I noticed that my outside temperature is 89F.

So I have to go other shops to kill time. After another 20mins, the reading drops to 69F. I start my car w/o any problem.

After a 30mins ride, I arrived lowe's and go grab one can of seafoam. When i return after 8mins, the outside temperature raised from 54F(when I stopped in lowe's parking lot) to 71F. And I can start the engine without any problem.

So my questions are:
1) Is it normal if the outside temperature sensor is affected by the radiator(engine)?
2) How can I clean/replace it?
3) Will the difficulty start-up problem have anything to do with it? For example, under certain temperature range, the ECU will tell the system to adjust fuel pressure or some other things.

Thanks in advance.

 

the sensor is located directly in front of the radiator near bottem
it will give false readings for 5-10 minutes after you start driving
there is NO connection from it to the ECU
its not your hot start problem

inspect that sensor is in its clip, and not touching rad,,thats a lot of temp change

have you swapped the fuel pump relay yet?