Bolt and Outside Temperature

[jsg]

Today I was driving in San Francisco where the outside temperature was 93 degrees Fahrenheit. In the Bolt, the temperature readout on the infotainment screen (upper right hand corner of screen) read 74 degrees! How could it be so far off? The car is very clean, nothing that I know of obstructing any sensors. I had the air-conditioning on and the inside temperature was set at 68 degrees,

Anybody notice this discrepancy between outside temperature and the digital readout on the screen?

Thanks!
Jerry

 

[SeanNelson]

Today I was driving in San Francisco where the outside temperature was 93 degrees Fahrenheit. In the Bolt, the temperature readout on the infotainment screen (upper right hand corner of screen) read 74 degrees! How could it be so far off? The car is very clean, nothing that I know of obstructing any sensors. I had the air-conditioning on and the inside temperature was set at 68 degrees,

I seem to recall that there was a service bulletin for an issue with the thermostat wiring - but it may have been for the HVAC thermostat rather than the external temperature sensor.

 

[dandrewk]

Did you park in a garage overnight? Every car I've owned with outside temp readouts takes several minutes to register correctly, and I suspect that is by design. It's probably a built in latency or perhaps a moving average. This is to prevent sudden spikes that might occur when stopped behind another vehicle's hot exhaust or blazing hot highway surfaces.

It's all about air flow, so the faster you go, the faster it will "catch up". Thus, driving around the City will take a longer time, especially if you park in an protected environment.

 

[jsg]

Did you park in a garage overnight? Every car I've owned with outside temp readouts takes several minutes to register correctly, and I suspect that is by design. It's probably a built in latency or perhaps a moving average. This is to prevent sudden spikes that might occur when stopped behind another vehicle's hot exhaust or blazing hot highway surfaces.

It's all about air flow, so the faster you go, the faster it will "catch up". Thus, driving around the City will take a longer time, especially if you park in an protected environment.

Thanks for responding. I think you're right, I've noticed after driving around the temperature seems to become accurate. And yes, the Bolt is parked in a garage.

 

[davidcahill]

My Chevy Bolt's outside air temperature sensor has been reading 60 degrees all day, even though the outside temperature has varied from about 50 degrees to near 80 degrees. This is the first problem I have had since leasing the car six months ago.

Is there any way reset/reboot the temperature sensor?

 

[SeanNelson]

Is there any way reset/reboot the temperature sensor?

You could try rebooting the infotainment system, just in case the issue is a "stuck" display rather than a stuck sensor. You do this by holding down the physical "Home" and "Next Selection" buttons (next to the volume control knob) for around 10 seconds.

 

[davidcahill]

Thanks! More info: The sensor does reset itself every morning on initial startup. Then it resets itself *intermittently* through the day a couple of times. Or not.

 

[Kevhearn]

Iam also getting a p0073 fault code for ambient air temperature sensor. Besides affecting the way the air conditioning system runs can a faulty sensor effect my main battery pack cooling?

 

[SeanNelson]

Iam also getting a p0073 fault code for ambient air temperature sensor. Besides affecting the way the air conditioning system runs can a faulty sensor effect my main battery pack cooling?

The battery pack has its own internal temperature sensors, but it's anyone's guess as to how the ambient air reading might affect the battery pack cooling algorithm.

 

[Kevhearn]

Thankyou, iam going to take it to the chevy dealer and have them reset the fault and take it from there. May just need a hard reset to clear the fault code and since it is under warranty 20k miles i will let them tell me whats up witb it.