sometimes i will start my car it will read the temp (although it seems to be off lately) anyways sometimes i start the car and all i get is a "OUTSIDE TEMP - - -" im guessing its a faulty sensor my TL has been a electrical problem since ive got it pretty much only at 37k =[ anyway is it worth it to replace anyone know where it is

 

According to the user manual, the sensor is in the front bumper.

 

its not faulty. Its designed to do that, the car has to be moving faster than 2MPH, but less than 12 MPH and then it will take a reading, also the car has to be up to operating temps. Also if the temp is over 115, it will read ---

 

so how rare is this then??? ive been driving for awhile before and it turns on.. and alot of the time i never move and it has a reading.. i can turn the key to the on position and get reading so i dont think the moving has anything to do with it

 

My TL always has a temp, as soon as the car starts up-- it may not be an accurate reading, though, until it has been driven for a little. This morning, it read 79*F at start up (front end was in the sun), then stabilized to a more accurate 72* after about two miles of driving.

The "---" indicates a problem, as does the "117*F" if it really isn't that hot.

I believe the sensor is under the bumper, towards the right front tire- the owner's manual had a diagram pointing it out, IIRC. It's a warranty repair.

 

Is 115 really the upper limit? It gets quite a bit hotter in many areas on occasion.

 

Well, along these lines, I have a slightly different problem.

I started up my '05 non-navi Friday night to find that all of my preset radio stations were gone, no Bluetooth connectivity indication on the radio display, and no temperature reading. Bluetooth was in fact connected and could be seen in the MFD and worked fine for calls. I turned the car off and restarted but same problem. On Saturday morning, everyhting was back to normal, including all of my presets. Seems like some kind of software initialization bug to me. Anybody else seen this???

 

Regarding 117ºF, bear in mind that if the car has been parked in particularly strong sun the sensor may give a much higher reading than is accurate until it cools down a bit, especially if you have NBP. As long as the reading returns to a more normal one within the first few minutes of driving, there is little reason to be concerned.

 

point is it shouldnt read 117.. either way. I read one manual it says the cut off is 115 other said 113

 

Perhaps more recent model years have a higher cutoff. I believe my '04 cuts off at 111ºF.

 

I don't know how accurate the temp sensor/readout is- I wouldn't worry if it reads "117*F" and the actual temp is 112*F. I doubt there is an actual limiter on the temp sensor, so there may be some variation on when the sensor stops reading.
Whether it's 111* or 120*F, it's already way too hot for me to care about the difference.

However, if it's 60*F or 80*F outside and your temp sensor is reading "117*F" when the TL's front end is not stuck in an oven or baking on blacktop, the temp sensor may be bad.