My car has 700 miles. I took it into the dealer a few days ago because the exterior temperature was way off. It was snowing and the mid showed it as "50" degrees outside.

When I took it in, they said that the sensor was broken and it was the first time they have ever seen it broken on the TL. So they replaced it. Well 2 days later it's being weird again. Outside temperature is 25 degrees but my car says it's 33. It's better then before but still off. Anyone's exterior temperature sensor accurate?

 

Mine's dead on. I calibrated it myself in my garage not long after buying the car because it flatlined and drained my battery completely dead 7 weeks after purchase. Since then it has never failed and has been right on the money.

 

check the owner book for directions on adjusting
Dealer may have driven around the block and got it close based on ambient temp.
Some older model TL- owners put sensor in cup of icewater and set reading at 32

 

Mine is pretty accurate but you can adjust it +/- 5 degrees.

Select the outside temperature display, then press the SEL/RESET button for 10 seconds.

The following sequence will appear for 1 second each: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0 (US models) or 0, 1, 2, 3, -3, -2, -1, 0 (Canada)

When it reaches the desired value, release the SEL/RESET button. You should see the new outside temperature displayed.

This is out of the topic, but I wish I can adjust the light sensor sensitivity, my headlights go on only at very dark environments, I wish it went on when it is very cloudy or raining in the daytime. Can we adjust this?

 

Yep, what teknoking said (out of the 2008 Owner's Manual):

 

You need to be aware that the temp sensor will not be accurate the moment you drive out of your garage.

It goes through a complex (and to me a kind of goofy) algorithm to slowly equilibratre the displayed temperature and the measured temperature. IOW - it might measure 25* but still display 33*.

There's a thread on it somewhere - maybe the 3G garage and as mentioned it may also be described in the Owners Manual.

 

Best advice is to park the car outside out of direct sunlight for at least 4 hours to allow it to equilibrate to the outside temp. You can compare your TL's reading to a calibrated thermometer which you can buy from any super market and adjust if needed.

 

Thanks for the response!

Here's what I did. Left the car in the garage for about 5 hours with the garage door closed. Put 2 thermometers in the garage. Both thermometers said it was 55 degrees. My car said it was 59 after leaving in the garage for 5 hours. So now after calibrating, I think it's the right temp! Thanks again

 

You really should take a look at this thread:

https://acurazine.com/forums/ramblings-12/i-just-got-transformers-67481/

Since your ambient temp was less than indicated, you should be OK if you gave the car about 10 seconds to equilibrate.

However, if it were the other way around (ambient higher than indicated), you'd have drive around to get the display to equilibrate.