Outside Air Temperature Updating

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pdevasto

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We've had our new Encore for about 3 weeks and absolutely love it. It has the radio with navigation setup. One thing we're noticing is that the outside air temperature doesn't seem to be updating as it should be. Last week the outside air temp was in the low 80's, but our display never showed higher than 70. There doesn't seem to be anything in either the owner manual or the Infotainment manual about how the updating takes place Has anyone else noticed behavior like this? Thanks in advance, Pete De Vasto
 
Monitored mine while driving tonight.

Showed 70F in the garage and then dropped to 64F in the 2 miles to pick up the wife which is just about right.

Local temp now according to Google is 63F.

🙂
 
This is a problem with a lot of the newer cars out in the market these days.

I travel for work which means I drive a few rental cars (over 20 this year so far). I find that the ambient temperature problem is a pretty significant problem because..

A) It one vehicle it wouldn't let me turn the A/C on when it was 80+
B) Cars these days with automatic climate controls use this information in determine how to heat/cool the car...

So what is the problem? The sensors they are using are not calibrating unless you drive 45mph+ for 2+ minutes with out slowing or stopping - think the movie speed.

ONE vehicle I had, I was able to manually force the sensor to calibrate by pressing specific buttons on the dash. I can't for the life remember what car it was, I think a Dodge Journey... Chrysler 300s I haven't found a way to do this except driving 55 for more then 2 minutes.

So what has happened for me is, being in places where say the AM temperature is 40 degrees, but mid-afternoon is 75.... I will get in my car and until I perform the steps above, the car thinks it is 40 degrees outside as it was when I turned it off.

I am seeing this across all manufactures along with the new idea of having recirculate turn on automatically (without lighting up) and you CAN'T turn it off...... Those two things irritate me to no end with the 2012-14 vehicles I have been driving..

You need to ask Buick how do you manually force the ambient outside temperature sensor to calibrate without driving 45+ for 2+ minutes.
 
SteakNEggs said:
I am seeing this across all manufactures along with the new idea of having recirculate turn on automatically (without lighting up) and you CAN'T turn it off......
Click to expand...


Oh lord, does the Encore do that? How can I tell? Whirring of vents?
 
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weekend_drive said:
Oh lord, does the Encore do that? How can I tell? Whirring of vents?
Click to expand...

When the hvac uses fresh air you'll have positive pressure in the cabin, so when you crack open the drivers side window your hand should feel air escaping. When it is recirculating you'll feel air coming into the cabin since the hvac system is so strong you are now creating negative pressure.

My most recent rental was an Enclave, I would turn recirculate on (light came on) and then turn it off, which would lower the noise from the system. My assumption was that it was in fact turning on when starting the car (80+ outside). I don't know if the Encore does this or not but I will assume it does.

Jeep was the worse, it wouldn't let you turn off the recirculate unless you put the hvac in front window defrost mode which doesn't work well when it is 80+ outside.

I am a smoker so this is probably a bigger issue for me then most. I can tell which way the smoke is blowing and if everything is done correctly, the car should never smell like smoke (I hate the smell LOL). If the car is forcing recirculation on me, it will.
 
pdevasto said:
We've had our new Encore for about 3 weeks and absolutely love it. It has the radio with navigation setup. One thing we're noticing is that the outside air temperature doesn't seem to be updating as it should be. Last week the outside air temp was in the low 80's, but our display never showed higher than 70. There doesn't seem to be anything in either the owner manual or the Infotainment manual about how the updating takes place Has anyone else noticed behavior like this? Thanks in advance, Pete De Vasto
Click to expand...
Mine is currently doing this. It has read 66 all day
 
pdevasto said:
We've had our new Encore for about 3 weeks and absolutely love it. It has the radio with navigation setup. One thing we're noticing is that the outside air temperature doesn't seem to be updating as it should be. Last week the outside air temp was in the low 80's, but our display never showed higher than 70. There doesn't seem to be anything in either the owner manual or the Infotainment manual about how the updating takes place Has anyone else noticed behavior like this? Thanks in advance, Pete De Vasto
Click to expand...
I am having the same problem
 
I just bought a 2017 Essence w/15k miles on it. The Ambient temperature sensor is reading -40degrees! It's under warranty and when I take it in I'll let you know how it goes. I live in Arizona so it's not minus ANY degrees here!
 
Where the outside temperature can be read? I have a new Encore GX 2020 and could not find this value anywhere 🙁
 
Olebon said:
Where the outside temperature can be read? I have a new Encore GX 2020 and could not find this value anywhere 🙁
Click to expand...
Olebon said:
Where the outside temperature can be read? I have a new Encore GX 2020 and could not find this value anywhere 🙁
Click to expand...
its on the navigation screen bottom right corner
 
I'm now looking for a solution to this as well for my 2017 Buick Lacrosse. I only noticed it this morning after getting in my car and starting it up after doing some grocery shopping. It was really hot outside and I noticed the infotainment system showed 76 degrees. If SteakNEggs is correct in his post from 2013, then I think this isn't the first time this has happened with my car. On more than one occasion my AC did not seem to be blowing cold enough air to cool the interior of the car, until I got on the highway for a couple minutes. At the time, I assumed this was because it was very hot out. I am not so sure anymore.

If I don't find a fix quickly, I'll be taking it to the dealer to see if it's covered under the extended warranty I purchased.
 
The ambient temperature sensor has nothing to do with your HVAC. The only use of this sensor is to determine whether or not to turn on rear defog. ( Steering wheel and heated seats if so optioned and selected in menu ) when you remote start your vehicle. Engine has it's own intake air sensor. On Trax forum some people have found the connector's pins behind the left kick panel would corroded from salt soaking the carpets and leeching to the wires. They spray cleaned this connector and plugged and unplugged several times to clean the contacts. Added dielectric grease and this seem to clear this problem. The 2 wires from the sensor come directly to this connector before continuing to the instrument panel or human interface if you have Navigation. It's not a difficult job just a hard place to access especially at my age.

Ambient Air.png
Ambient Air1.png
2021-07-30 (1).webp
 
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