Cadillac Forum - Enthusiast forums for Cadillac Owners - Outside air temp sensor not reading correctly

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skippyDTS

03-17-2008 04:01 PM

Outside air temp sensor not reading correctly

Greetings,
OK, so I am new to Cadillacs and this site, and I am about to double post, but nobody answered my other post.
. If you need to move this, please do.

Two weeks ago I purchased a 2003 DeVille DTS.
I noticed the outside air temp sensor is off on the plus side by 20 degrees and tends to go down to withing 10 degress of the actual temp as I drive.
All I can think is that the sensor is bad. It is not broke, It is clipped in the correct place in front of the radiator.
It is only a $24 piece. Will I be assuming correctly if I think the sensor is bad?
I saw other posts with suggestions about this, but no answers as to the fix.

Thanks a bunch

Stealth

05-08-2008 07:08 PM

RE: Outside air temp sensor not reading correctly

Quote:

ORIGINAL: skippyDTS

Greetings,
OK, so I am new to Cadillacs and this site, and I am about to double post, but nobody answered my other post.
. If you need to move this, please do.

Two weeks ago I purchased a 2003 DeVille DTS.
I noticed the outside air temp sensor is off on the plus side by 20 degrees and tends to go down to withing 10 degress of the actual temp as I drive.
All I can think is that the sensor is bad. It is not broke, It is clipped in the correct place in front of the radiator.
It is only a $24 piece. Will I be assuming correctly if I think the sensor is bad?
I saw other posts with suggestions about this, but no answers as to the fix.

Thanks a bunch

try unpluging it, cleaning the contacts and see what it does.
if nothing happens, get a new one.

carnut

05-09-2008 11:17 AM

RE: Outside air temp sensor not reading correctly

The sensor remembers what the last reading was when the key was shut off. If overnight, then the reading will be wrong until the car is driven a certain distance above 25 mph. Then it changes either up or down to a more accurate reading. Throughout the day, running errands, the outside temp remains fairly constant so a grossly low or hi display will not occur. This morning my display showed 72 degrees but it was approx. 55 outside. After 3 miles it corrected itself. It will also hold a temp reading in slow moving traffic so as to not record a hot exhaust from the car 10 feet in front of you. This logic is programmed into the PCM.

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