I'm new to acura - 788 miles on my '06 TL nav -

My outside temp rarely displays correct temperature - been back 2x's to dealer - they tell me you have to drive so far / so fast for it to register - (something like 3 miles over 17 mph) -

Well - I drive mostly city - good luck find 3 non-stop miles in city - -

I jump on the freeway and drive a ways - no problem -

I jump in first thing in the morning - drive 40 mins stop & go - and I will read whatever it was at startup...

This is a poor design (if truly designed that way) - my other vehicle is a '02 GMC Duramax Diesel - it registers correctly any time, any place....

Am I crazy?

Steve

 

Sometimes, I do have that problem where it will read something absurd, or nothing at all..but for the most part it does its job.

 

Mine usually shows exactly the same temp that other thermometers nearby show. But, if the car's been sitting in a hot parking lot for a while, the temp will be too high until I start moving a little. Then it settles into something realistic.

 

I think mine is pretty accurate however, it doesn't change instantaneously when the temp fluctuates.

 

it's just another one of the shitty designs on this shitty car

 

The temp guage sucks royal ass! You have to drive for 90 seconds over 18 MPH for it to change 1 degree. And if you live in Arizona like I do it won't even work in the summer. The guage displays - - - after it reaches 115 degrees. mine rarely works.

 

My temperature gauge display the correct temperature at all times but here in Sicily, Italy it get very hot the highest temp we had was 119. I don't think the gauge was made to exceed over 100 degrees (personal opinion) so when it is that hot if we leave it on the outside temperature to long we will get --- so we just try to keep it off of the outside temperature setting when it is that hot.

 

Wow! Do you still own one?

 

Mine works, though it seems to be about 2 or 3 degrees too high.

 

Bitter are we?

 

Mine works fine. I calibrated it nearly two years ago (you can do this yourself - it's in the owner's manual). It's dead on accurate.

 

Mine seems to work fine, and seems to be accurate as well. I've only had one incident when is displayed "---", but that was fixed next time I started the car???

 

I have a 2004 and it works fine. As others have said, sometimes it gives a very high reading after being parked in a very hot place (outdoors during summer, or for some reason in the underground parking at Wegmans), but that clears itself up when I start driving. I don't think people can really complain that it's a problem for it to give a high reading after being parked in the hot sun—after all, consider that probably 95% of the temperature readings on those digital displays outside banks are usually considerably higher than the actual temperature.

 

Mine reads accurately right now. What section in the owners manual is the calibration listed? I have an 06. Thanks.

 

Man, someone is having a bad day!

Fer crissakes, who really cares anyway? What true purpose does the thermometer serve? It's not like you are going to plan your day around the temp reading in your car. It's nothing more than trinket.

Mine will read insanely hot when parked outside all day. It settles into an accurate reading once moving. Whether that takes 2, 3, or 4 miles, so what.

It's a car. It's not a perfect car - there isn't one. In my opinion (mine only) it's one hell of a deal for $32K.

Does it have some rattles? Yea, that's what the surround sound is for. It's got some orange peel, and the interior material quality is a little dissappointing.

For me though, I've got an incredibly quick, stylish car to commute in that gets 30+ mpg. I couldn't ask for more.

gurney

 

Ditto on that.

Mine has always worked accordingly with the exception that it's been sitting (for example) in my driveway on blacktop all day in 95*+ temps and then it settles.

 

It's not in the owner's manual, but it is in the service manual, and the scans and instructions are in the 3G Garage.

F-085: Acura info on Temp Sensor Logic + Calibration
https://acurazine.com/forums/ramblings-12/i-just-got-transformers-67481/

 

Mine has always worked fine. You are going to have times when it sit out in the heat that it is going to read high. That’s due to the fact it is behind the bumper cover and in front of the metal bumper. Heat gets trapped in there and you will get a false reading. The circulation of air in there is very poor, this is for a reason, that way you get a more accurate reading. If it where mounted where direct air could blow on it, you would get a false reading as well. This is extremely true during winter, as the cold air blowing on the sensor would make it seem colder then it really was. It is by no means a poor design, other then the fact it only goes to 115 degrees. Once calibrated, if that is the problem, it works perfect. You need to be moving 18 mph to stir the air that is in there to get a accurate reading, if not it is going to read the temperature it was while sitting on hot asphalt in the mid day sun!!

As for the truck, its higher off the ground and the sensor is not in a trapped air space, it is in open air space. One other thing that comes into play is the color of the car. If it is a dark color, it will of coarse read higher then it should.


Jason

 

thanks Ron.

 

seriously if thats all you're going to post, dont post at all...

 

Mine seems to work fine. The only issue is it read "---" once after sitting in a hot parking lot all day. I guess it never gets over 100 in Japan, so the engineers figured 115 would be plenty.

Volkswagon has a super trick system that uses infrared to measure the air temp several yards in front of the car.

 

Ok, I may have made a mistake and mean the Service Manual (which I have). In any case, what I did was hang a quality thermometer right next to the sensor and let it stay that way in my garage overnight. The next day, I did the calibration based on the temperature at the sensor. You do this through your MID.

 

Thanks Ron.. sorry to mislead you gentlemen.

 

My temp guage has always worked. I have adjusted it based on outside conditions after driving it above 19 mph for a few miles and it is now accurate--except for the situation everyone else mentions, when it's been sitting for a while and it takes a mile or two to get it back into shape...

 

The fix for preventing the temperature gauge from increasing while your car sits in a parking lot under the hot sun all day involves a 12 foot pole and some serious aerodynamics issues.

 

I'm guessing it uses the same one as in the EX Accords. Mine works perfectly fine. It reads 4-5°C too hot when it's been sitting in a hot parking lot, but it adjusts after a few minutes of driving.

I would only be concerned if it didn't work at all. Like someone else said, at best, it's only a trinket.

 

Is there any way to adjust the temp. more than 3 degrees up, or 3 down? From everything I've read, that is the limit to the adjustment. Mine is off by 4 degrees using a calibrated mercury weather station thermometer I know to be accurate, so I'd like to adjust it perfectly.

 

Not that I can find in my Service Manual. Did you hang you thermometer right next to the car's sensor after it had cooled down a bit, then let it sit like that over night in a garage or some covered area? That is what I did. Then the following morning, with the engine cold, I read and noted the temperature of the thermometer and adjusted the car's outside temperature display to that value. It has worked like a charm ever since.

 

there is a + - 5 degree adjustment you can make. READ the manual.
After the adjutment mine reads perfect.

 

The TL is not a rolling weather station. Other than a "trinket", as someone suggested, why would the outside temperature be material to a serious driver?

No, not to tell you if you need to park in the shade or put on a sweater.

It's behind the front bumper for a reason. It is to tell you the temperature of the road so the driver will know if it is freezing (ice) or getting close to it.

In many parts of the country, "black ice" or ice that is invisible is a real hazzard. That's the only time the information is important to the driver.

Mine seems to be fairly accurate when there is air moving across the front. It probably reads a couple of degrees higher at that height from the radiant heat of blacktop. That doesn't bother me. If it did, I could adjust it as mentioned above.

 

Geez - it took me pages to find this thread again! LOL.

I wish I would have had a camera yesterday (as my Blackberry does not have a camera on it, as my old cell phone did ) to take a pic of my outside temp gauge...

THANKFULLY, I park in a garage below my office building so my car stays cool during the day; very grateful for that.

After work yesterday, I let my car sit on our blacktopped driveway for maybe an hour until I had to go run errands. As I got started up the street the outside temp was 104* and dropped back to 102* - it was accurate according to our local weatherman. Then stopped to get gas (at $3.03 p/gallon; sadly, I'm beginning to think that's not all that bad! AGH! ). When I left the gas station my outside temp gauge read ---*, then moments later 111* - I about crapped my pants! THAT IS FREAKING HOT (especially for PA folk). Seconds later I was relieved when it dropped back to 100*+.

Just wanted to comment on how well my temp gauge works... LOL.

 

Gee. It's 88 in Ft. Lauderdale today.

In fact, we have NEVER seen triple-digit temperatures. Ever.

The record high for Ft. Lauderdale is 99 degrees since temperatures were recorded.

 

Hey - I used to live in Pompano Beach for 2-years; lived right on A1A by the Atlantic Avenue bridge. LOVE THAT AREA!!

Currently in Harrisburg it is 94* with a lot of humidity; feeling like it is 103* (Ref: local ABC news affiliate).

PA usually doesn't hit the triple digits either (just oddly, this summer) and I've been wondering what type of damage it will do to some interiors; especially those folks who have to park outside all day. It's got to be brutal..............

 

That's because you have the advantage of the sea breeze coming off of the beautiful Altlantic. Good for you!

 

I think there are two kinds of people in the world ... those who care what the temperature is and those who don't. And those who DO, want the friggin thermometer to be correct.

It's kinda like the people who say, "Why do you care about a trip computer telling you what your gas mileage is? It's going to run out the same whether you're getting 16mpg or 20mpg, and when it does, just fill it up again and move on."

Well, some of us want to know what the outside temperature is, what gas mileage we're getting, and anything else we can. We're in the information age, and it's important to us to know abour our surroundings and the performance of our vehicles.

I say give us all the information you can. For starters, I'd like live weather radar overlaid on the Nav screen map so I can know where the thunderstorms are and where they're going. But those who don't care about temperature and gas mileage probably don't care about Navigation or weather radar, either ...

 

I just experienced my first flat line in my car today. The heat wave down here has been crazy lately and we're usually in the upper 90's around here this time of year. After awhile, it went back to normal.

 

It was 106 here in Dallas today has been over 100 for the past week. Looks like its going to be over 100 for a few more days. I have been getting alot of --- . But I think its because to fawking hot! I like the feature, and it has worked fine so far for me.

 

I hve a 06 and since it is alot hotter now, the temp gauge responds very slow now.

 

now thats a bit to much isnt it?? if you think its such a shitty car why are you even on the forums?

 

If you live up north, it's nice to know when the temp is dropping to icing conditions. That is not a "trinket" in my book...it's important. Here in Arizona, it's nice to know how hot it is outside...and that could be considered a "trinket". The temp gauge on this car makes that a joke. There are 100 days a year where the temp on the road can exceed 115 degrees. I've only owned the car for about 2 weeks now, but the temp gauge has flatlined every day at one time or another. It's worthless and a horrible design. I've never, ever had another car do that. It's important to me to know the outside temp...regardless of whether you consider that frivolous or not. Since I paid for it, I think it should work. Ford makes a great rear view mirror with the temp in it. I'm just going to replace mine with one of theirs and add the additional probe so I can have accurate readings.

some of you may think I'm being too picky...but it's something that bothers me and is easily remedied. Now, if I could only get XM NavTraffic......