I got my car washed yesterday and now my air conditioner doesn't work. I started looking around and realized that my outside air temp in the center dash was reading -17 degrees. I live it SoCal, so not much chance of that. Turned off the car and started it again, the temp fixed itself but soon started dropping again.

I did some searching and found that the temp sensor/sender is mounted in the front bumper. Any body know where in the front bumper?

Has this happened to anybody else and changing the temperature sender fixed the problem?

thanks,

 

it sits on a little stem in front of the AC condensor. You can see it thru the center lower grille.

 

I'm assuming this is a dealer only part? Or would Autozone have it?

thanks!

 

dealer part, no doubt. Doesn't seem likely that it would be bad though. I used to make thermocouples to measure EGT's in jet engines. It's two wires of different alloys, and the voltage thru them changes with heat. A computer (or my multimeter from radio shack) takes the signal, and converts it to a temp.

You could check the voltage thru it at a known temperature, and see what it corresponds to on a reference table. Only problem is knowing which wire types are used. http://instrumentation-central.com/p...ence_table.htm <reference charts

The ones I used to make were Alumel/Chromel 'K type' its a pretty average thermocouple, I'd try that, bet you'll get lucky.
BTW, knowing this, you can make as many circuits as you'd like, and measure temperature anywhere on your car w/ a volt meter. Oil temp, EGT's, fuel temp, underhood ambient temp, air intake temp... possibilities are endless. Or useless. I'm feeling lately like unless its turbo/engine related, i've maxed the potential of this forum as a resource, and what I can add can sometimes be over the heads of others. Thats an unrelated micro-vent that you're lucky enough to get in your thread with all the rest of this rambling. ; )

 

I gotcher sensor right here...

 

Whoa, another stranger. What brings you over here?

 

Anyone have a picture of where the outside air temp sensor connects? I am missing the bracket and have 2 bare wires that go back to a connector around the driver side lens washer area. So I need the sensor, bracket, clip etc. Looks like my 2002 roadster may have had a hit at one point and A/C is not working.
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